OAKLAND -- An Oakland carpenter who has a history of working in the nude was acquitted Thursday of misdemeanor indecent exposure charges stemming from an October 2005 incident in which a client returned to his house and found the carpenter naked while building a set of bookcases.

Percy Honniball said he's "very happy" that Alameda County Superior Court Judge Julie Conger found him not guilty at the end of a three-day, non-jury trial because if he'd been convicted he would have had to register as a sex offender for the rest of his life.

His attorney, David Beauvais, said Honniball, 51, whose business is called Honey Built Construction and is located at 3032 Kansas St. in Oakland, "has decided that that although what he did was not illegal, it's probably prudent to wear clothes while he works so he doesn't face legal hassles again."

Beauvais said Honniball thinks that the experience of being arrested and standing trial "is too draining."

Honniball said he agrees that "the prudent course of conduct" would be to keep his clothes on while he works, but seemed to leave a little wiggle room by saying he "wouldn't expect to be nude" from now on.

Beauvais admitted that Honniball was nude while building bookcases for a man in Oakland's Montclair District, but Conger agreed with him that Honniball didn't commit a crime "because he didn't intend to have a lewd display of his body."

He said Honniball was simply "going about his business as a contractor," albeit "somewhat naively."

Beauvais said the incident was reported by the client's neighbor, who happened to be an off-duty female police officer who "was disturbed" by seeing Honniball nude while carrying a box into the client's house.

He said Honniball "hadn't acted in a lewd fashion or had any intent to gratify himself or anyone else in public."

The defense attorney said Honniball "was not aware that people were looking at him."

Honniball said, "Mere public nudity is not lewd conduct."

He said, "There's a lot of public nudity, like people running in the Bay to Breakers race or participating in the 'How Berkeley Can You Be' parade."

Honniball said when people are nude in public, "most people laugh at you or ignore you."

Berkeley police say that Honniball was caught in 2000, 2001 and 2003 working in the nude or exposing himself to mail carriers or nearby residents while doing carpentry work.

In 2003, he was sentenced to two years of probation for violating a Berkeley ordinance that bans public nudity.

In the 2003 incident in the Berkeley hills, a woman called police because she saw him walking on a street near a nursery school.

Prosecutor Erin Lobak was unavailable for comment on Honniball's acquittal.