UPDATE, MAY 19, 9:41 A.M.: Robert Bruce Engel pleaded not guilty at his arraignment to indecent exposure.
ORIGINAL POST, MAY 18, 5:12 P.M.: Three teenage girls at Rancho Santa Margarita Library noticed a man sitting on a bench across from them around 7 p.m. on May 9. He had a newspaper on his lap, his hands under the newspaper and–yikes!–is the book marker in your pocket or are you just happy to see us?
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Turns out it was the latter. But when the girls informed the librarian,
and the librarian went to confront the creeper, he had split.
He returned Monday evening, according to authorities
This time, the librarian called the Orange County Sheriff's Department (OCSD), and deputies arrived in time to make an arrest.
The suspect was identified as Robert Bruce Engel, a 67-year-old registered sex offender from Mission Viejo.
The Orange County District Attorney's office announced today that Engel is charged with one felony count of indecent exposure with prior convictions for indecent exposure in 1999 and 2002. If convicted, he could get up to three years in state prison.
Engel, who was being held in lieu of $20,000 bail, has a May 26 pre-trial hearing scheduled at Harbor Justice Center in Newport Beach.
OC Weekly Editor-in-Chief Matt Coker has been engaging, enraging and entertaining readers of newspapers, magazines and websites for decades. He spent the first 13 years of his career in journalism at daily newspapers before “graduating” to OC Weekly in 1995 as the alternative newsweekly’s first calendar editor.