A 63-year-old convicted sex offender faces up to seven years in prison if convicted of exposing himself in Newport Beach earlier this month, prosecutors said Tuesday.
Mark Erik Anderson was charged Monday with a felony count of indecent exposure as well as single misdemeanor counts each of failing to register as a sex offender by a transient and failure to register and show proof of residence upon his release from jail.
He was also ticketed for jaywalking Nov. 4 and found to be in violation of his mandatory sex offender registration status and was arrested, but was released the next day, according to Cindy Nichols, the assistant head of court at the Harbor Justice Center.
On Nov. 18, Anderson allegedly touched himself with his pants down about 4 p.m. near Superior Avenue and South Coast Highway in Newport Beach, Nichols said. A witness called police, who arrested him at the scene, but he was again released the following day, according to jail records.
On Nov. 20, police were called about noon to investigate a petty theft at a store at 108 South Coast Highway in downtown Laguna Beach, said Laguna Beach police Sgt. Jim Cota. The business owner did not wish to press charges, but a search of records showed that the transient — Anderson — had not registered as a sex offender since he was released from jail in Los Angeles County earlier this year, Cota and Nichols said.
He remains jailed on $20,000 bail. He is due back in court Dec. 4 at the Harbor Justice Center in Newport Beach for a pretrial hearing.
Anderson was convicted on Feb. 5 of indecent exposure in Los Angeles County, according to court records.