photo by: Kansas Department of Corrections

Jimmy Lee Hadl

A 50-year-old man was charged Tuesday with a felony after passersby accused him of masturbating in public in downtown Lawrence.

The man, Jimmy Lee Hadl, of Lawrence, was arrested early Monday evening at Ninth and Vermont streets. According to the spokeswoman for the Lawrence Police Department, Laura McCabe, someone complained that a man was fondling himself in plain view on a public bench.

A police officer found the man on the bench “without a shirt, with his hands in his pants, a lubricating substance on his hands, and lotion on the bench next to him,” McCabe said.

The man denied that he had been masturbating. The officer believed that he had probable cause to submit an affidavit for misdemeanor lewd and lascivious behavior, but then discovered other people had witnessed the man’s actions, including a juvenile, which increased the severity of the alleged crime to a felony.

The minor witness is listed as having been born in 2012.

Hadl was then arrested and taken to the Douglas County Jail. He was scheduled for a first appearance at 3 p.m. Tuesday in Douglas County District Court.

Hadl has had numerous runs-ins with the law. According to the Kansas Department of Corrections, he has convictions for forgery, theft and fleeing and eluding. He also has multiple ongoing cases in Douglas County for criminal damage to property, as well as previous convictions for the same.