NORTHAMPTON – A Southampton man with a slew of previous convictions admitted he touched and his exposed himself in a Northampton store last summer.
John Steven Fitzgerald, 50, pleaded guilty to one county of open and gross lewdness in Hampshire Superior Court Thursday afternoon. Fitzgerald has been in custody since Sept. 6, 2016.
Fitzgerald is a registered level 3 sex offender and has 11 previous convictions of open and gross lewdness and lascivious behavior dating back to 1990, according to the state’s Sex Offender Registry Board.
Northampton Police were called to Faces, on Main Street, around 4 p.m. on Aug. 30, 2016 for a report of a suspicious man in the store, according to Northwestern Assistant District Attorney Jayme Parent.
Staff told police that a man, later identified as Fitzgerald, was walking around the store with his hands in his pants touching himself and at one point was exposed, Parent told the court.
When an employee approached Fitzgerald and asked him to leave, Parent said the woman told police she was “disgusted,” “shocked and alarmed,” by what she observed.
In an interview with police Fitzgerald acknowledged he was in the store and near an individual as well as intoxicated, according to Parent.
Sentencing for the plea is scheduled for March 22. Both attorneys agreed to a sentence recommendation of five years of probation with a number of conditions. Fitzgerald will also likely serve two years in confinement for a violation of probation out of Eastern Hampshire District Court in Belchertown, according to his attorney John Drake.
Fitzgerald remains in custody.
Emily Cutts can be reached at ecutts@gazettenet.com.