See the update at the end of this post on Patrick Dodenhoff's not guilty plea and confirmation he's believed the be the recent flasher at Orange County shopping malls.
ORIGINAL POST, MARCH 18, 7:33 A.M.: A 45-year-old paroled sex offender who allegedly exposed himself to eight different women this month throughout Orange County had a court appearance Monday afternoon.
Patrick Dodenhof of San Luis Obispo is accused of having preyed on the women in Brea, Irvine, Mission Viejo, Laguna Hills and Westminster.
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Brea Cops Unveil Flasher Images, More Details
You'll note Brea Mall, the Shops At Mission Viejo and the Irvine Spectrum are places where authorities just last week said a flasher had struck in recent days.
Dodenhoff was being held in lieu of $500,000 bail heading into Monday's hearing at the Central Jail in Santa Ana, where he was scheduled to be arraigned on eight felony counts of indecent exposure with a prior conviction with sentencing enhancements for four prison priors for indecent exposure in 2005 and 2008, and failure to register as a sex offender in 2009.
The seven prior convictions were for indecent exposure between 1997 and 2008 in San Luis Obispo and elsewhere in Southern California and San Luis Obispo, according to a statement from the Orange County District Attorney's office (OCDA).
A conviction could send Dodenhoff to state prison for 11 years and eight months, added prosecutors, who said no booking photo of him is being released and that the investigation is ongoing.
Anyone with information that can help the investigation was asked to contact Supervising District Attorney Investigator Mark Gutierrez at 714.347.8864.
UPDATE, MARCH 18, 10:34 A.M.: Patrick Dodenhoff pleaded not guilty at his arraignment to exposing himself to women this month at shopping malls in Brea, Irvine, Mission Viejo and elsewhere.
The 45-year-old paroled registered sex offender is due back in court in Fullerton for a pretrial hearing on March 25.
Brea Police say Dodenhoff was released from prison in December and had been living in San Luis Obispo but that he allegedly removed his GPS monitoring device on March 3. The first time he is accused of exposing himself to a woman since then was March 5, according to Orange County prosecutors.
Besides Brea, Irvine, Mission Viejo and Westminster, Dodenhoff is alleged to have struck in Huntington Beach, Laguna Hills, San Diego and Torrance, according to investigators, who invite anyone else who believes to have been a victim to call Orange County Crime Stoppers at 855.TIP.OCCS.
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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.