39-year-old man pulled down his pants at Chuck E. Cheese's

[Tux of Borg]

http://pressherald.mainetoday.com/news/loc...mallarrest.html

 

Suspect exposed himself, police say

By ELBERT AULL, Staff Writer Portland Press Herald Monday, January 8, 2007

 

SOUTH PORTLAND -- Police charged a South Portland man with exposing himself to children at a Maine Mall business Sunday afternoon, but not before an altercation, a foot chase and a violent brush with the rear window of a police cruiser.

Police said the 39-year-old man pulled down his pants at Chuck E. Cheese's -- a restaurant and entertainment business geared toward children -- sometime before 2:22 p.m. When the restaurant manager told the man to leave, the suspect punched the manager and fled.

 

South Portland Police Lt. Christopher Cook said restaurant employees, customers and mall security guards chased the suspect through a parking lot and into a wooded area several hundred feet from the restaurant.

 

The suspect stopped after someone threatened to shoot him, but no one involved in the chase was carrying a gun, Cook said. Police arrived and arrested the suspect, who cooperated at first and was placed in the back seat of Officer Kevin Battle's police cruiser.

 

Battle said that as he started to drive to the county jail, the handcuffed suspect "freaked out" in the car for no apparent reason and knocked out the passenger-side rear window with his forehead.

 

Battle turned the car around and headed back to the scene of the arrest, where other officers could help him. Meanwhile, the suspect poked his head out the window and somehow managed to wiggle out of his seat belt. When the car stopped, the man dived out of the back seat and smacked the pavement, police and witnesses said.

 

An ambulance took the suspect to Maine Medical Center, where he was treated for cuts and bruises to the face. He was taken to the Cumberland County Jail on Sunday night.

 

Police charged the suspect with visual sexual aggression against a child, criminal mischief, aggravated criminal mischief and escape from custody. The suspect is not a registered sex offender, and Cook said the man has never been convicted of a sex crime.

 

It is the policy of the Portland Press Herald/Maine Sunday Telegram to withhold the identities of suspects in sex crimes until they have made a court appearance.

 

Managers at Chuck E. Cheese's declined to comment Sunday, citing company policy.