A 31-year-old Santa Monica man was arrested on Friday, July 3, after being caught after dark with his pants down playing with himself on Santa Monica Beach.
Officers of the Santa Monica Police Department were called out to the 1600 block of the beach at 9:40 pm in order to investigate a report of a man who had been playing with his genitals in open view of other citizens.
When Harbor Guards and Beach Patrol officers arrived they witnessed the suspect perform a lewd sexual act upon himself so they detained the man whilst they attempted to identify his name.
The officers repeatedly asked this suspect to tell them who he was but the suspect was uncooperative and so the officers decided to arrest this man for lewd behavior.
As the officers were arresting this man he freed one of his legs and kicked the arresting officer in the chest so an additional charge of battery upon a police officer was added onto the original charge.
Bail was set in the amount of $20,000.
Editor’s Note: These reports are part of a regular police coverage series entitled “Alert Police Blotter” (APB), which injects some minor editorial into certain police activities in Santa Monica. Not all of The Mirror’s coverage of incidents involving police are portrayed in this manner. More serious crimes and police-related activities are regularly reported without editorial in the pages of the Santa Monica Mirror and its website, smmirror.com.