On Thursday, Dec. 29 at 3:00p.m. officers of the Santa Monica Police Department responded to a report of a man who was masturbating in the 3100 block of Santa Monica Boulevard. When the officers arrived they saw a man who fit the description of the offender and detained him.
The officers then spoke with a person who said she saw the man lying down on the sidewalk with his pants pulled down to about half way between his hips and his knees, who also had his shirt pulled up over his lower abdomen.
The witness said that the man had his penis in his hand and was masturbating at which point she said she ran into the building and called the police. The witness positively identified the man who had been masturbating and he was placed under arrest.
The officers took the 52-year-old homeless man to jail and he was charged with indecent exposure, violation of probation, and 11 outstanding warrants. Bail was set at $16,126.
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.