Published: Oct. 1, 1999

Area flashers still at large

By Joy Anderson

Aquin staff writer

The neighborhood around the University of St. Thomas is proving to be a popular site for exposers.

In addition to about a dozen exposing incidents by a man in a car who asks for directions to I-94, another chronic flasher - this one wearing women's clothing - has been sighted three times in the last two months.

On Sept. 14, some students from the College of St. Catherine's saw a white male wearing running shoes and a tan mini dress, which he pulled up to expose himself. Two days later, the same man returned to campus wearing women's pajama pants, a white bra and a blue cap. On Aug. 3, a man fitting the same description was seen at the corner of Goodrich and Woodlawn avenues, near UST's South Campus. He was wearing a blue dress and masturbating.

There also have been reports of a male with a similar description stealing women's underwear from clotheslines near St. Kate's.

Cases of indecent exposure are fairly common in the summer months according to Sgt. Bruce Mead of the St. Paul Police. Mead said the area around UST, especially near Mississippi River Boulevard, has been particularly plagued by incidents, probably because of the large number of college womenin the area.

Since March, UST Public Safety and Parking Services had 10 reports of indecent exposure, including eight regarding the man who asks for directions to I-94. The St. Paul Police attribute at least a dozen incidents to this man, and some occurrences probably go unreported. "You would assume that there's a lot more," said Brock Rasmussen, investigating officer for Public Safety.

All of the incidents by this perpetrator followed a pattern. A white male with short, dark hair driving a green Escort pulled up to a woman or group of women on the street and asked them for directions. When they answered, they saw that he was masturbating.

The car had a stolen license plate, which Mead said the suspect probably only used while exposing himself, and Public Safety and the police have no other leads.

"We put unmarked cars out there in hopes he would accost one of us, but he didn't," said Sgt. Chris Nelson of the St. Paul Police.

Marci Eggleston was on her way to work on the morning of June 29th when she encountered the exposer, who pulled up beside her car and asked her for directions to I-94. "He just sat there, so I told him again. He was kind of shaking, so I thought he was nervous," Eggleston said.

Because she was sitting inside her car, Eggleston didn't realize he was masturbating until he offered her $20 if she would watch. "I told him what I thought - it wasn't too pleasant," she said. "It's just so premeditated and so sick."

"I'm scared all the time to go outside," Eggleston said. "The person could have been more of an aggressor."

The I-94 exposer has not struck recently, however. "The last week in July is the last we've heard of him," Mead said.

"He has disappeared into the ozone," Nelson said. "Something has intruded in his life, something negative, hopefully." He speculated that the exposer might have been arrested in another area.

None of the cases has involved physical harm, Rasmussen noted, but there is always the possibility of intensification of the crime.

However, a flasher rarely attempts to sexually assault a victim, according to Dr. Jean Giebenhain, a UST psychology professor. "More often he wants to provoke shock and surprise," Giebenhain said. "They may tend to be lonely, insecure and isolated and just basically have deficits in interpersonal relationships.

"We don't really know what causes it." Giebenhain said common factors among males who commit indecent exposure include witnessing poor relationships between their parents and learning at an early age, either directly -- as in child abuse -- or indirectly, about deviant sexual behavior.