On Sunday, August 14. at 5:17 p.m. officers of the Santa Monica Police Department who had been assigned to beach patrol went to the restrooms located in the 1600 block of the beach in order to investigate a report of a man who had been exposing himself in front of the restrooms while he was taking a shower under one of the facilities located there to be used by people who have been bathing in the ocean.
When they arrived they spoke with the victim who told them that he had been at the beach with his family and that the suspect had been about 30 feet away, under the shower. He noticed that the suspect had been looking around, and that when a family walked by he pulled his swimming trunks down and exposed himself. The victim said that the suspect repeated this performance when a second family walked by.
When the police had arrived the victim told the officers that the suspect had entered the restrooms, so they went in in order to locate the suspect and question him. The officers, after speaking with the suspect, believed they had uncovered the truth and had enough evidence to arrest this 33-year-old homeless man, and he was charged with indecent exposure. He was later cited and released.
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