WESTFIELD – A homeless man in the city was arrested Sunday after he allegedly exposed himself in Grandmother’s Garden to a group which included a 13-year-old girl.
City police report that a caller reported a suspicious man in the park at 1:39 p.m. and officers Kerry Paton and Sean Smith were dispatched.
Smith reports, in a document filed in Westfield District Court, that two women said that they had been taking photographs in the park when a 13-year-old girl with them noticed a man ten feet away from them.
The women told Smith that the man’s fly was open and his genitalia were on display.
One woman said, Smith reports, that she was “shocked and angry and nervous” while the other said she was “shocked and scared.”
Smith performed an area search and reports that he encountered a male party who fit the description provided by the women in the area of nearby Bullens Field.
The suspect was detained by Smith and Paton brought one of the victims to the suspect for a “drive-by” identification from the interior of his cruiser.
The man was identified as the person the women had seen in the garden and was found to be Kenneth S. Jarvis, 60.
The address he provided was 7 Free St., the site of the Samaritan Inn, the city’s homeless shelter.
Jarvis was arraigned in Westfield District Court before Judge Philip A. Contant on Monday and was released on his personal recognizance pending a Jan. 9 hearing.
