Cape authorities arrest man for indecent exposure

Shortly after responding to an indecent exposure call Friday to Kiwanis Park, two plain-clothes officers from the Cape Girardeau Police Department found an invitation for sex in the park men's restroom.

It was freshly written, police Sgt. Barry Hovis said, and asked for a meeting at 1:30 p.m. The officers went outside and saw a man sitting nearby in a white 1989 Oldsmobile, he said.

"Are you the guy who is here for the 1:30 appointment?" the officers asked the man, Hovis said.

The man said yes, and entered the restroom in the park on the 2300 block of Perryville Road. When officers went in, Hovis said, he was exposing himself.

Police aren't releasing the man's name until a summons for misdemeanor indecent exposure is filed by county prosecutor Morley Swingle, Hovis said. But the incident isn't anything new, he said.

It was, however, somewhat different than the average investigation of such problems, he said. The detectives "were kind of surprised by this guy's actions."

Police first received the call of a man exposing himself about 12:45 p.m. Friday, Hovis said. When they first arrived, they didn't see anyone acting suspiciously.

In the past, Hovis said, such activities were discovered during undercover sting investigations in Klaus Park, near Center Junction, in North County Park on the north side of Kingshighway near Interstate 55 and in South County Park, which is on the south side of Kingshighway near I-55.

The police department has usually used an officer from another agency, such as the Missouri State Highway Patrol, to find people acting in inappropriate sexual ways in area parks, Hovis said.

The arrest made Friday was the first such incident this year, he said.

The Cape Girardeau County Sheriff's Department has also conducted such investigations, said Capt. Ruth Ann Dickerson. Most of the investigations that resulted in arrests stemmed from complaints from park users, she said.

"We have not been receiving many complaints this summer," Dickerson said.

The case that gained the most notoriety in the past was a 1991 incident in which Ralph J. Beck Jr., at the time a Jackson School District teacher, was arrested for exposing himself in South County Park. The case was filed after when an undercover highway patrolman and a sheriff's deputy cooperated in a sting operation.

Cape Girardeau city undercover investigations also were responses to complaints, Hovis said.

rkeller@semissourian. com

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