Neighbors of a man repeatedly arrested for public indecency said they are alarmed by his behavior and hope he receives mental help.
Edwin Charles Tobergta III, 34, of Harmon Avenue, was arrested June 17 for allegedly stepping out his back door naked at about 1:20 p.m. June 15 and having “sexual relations with a rubber pool float,” according to a Hamilton police report.
Tobergta was indicted by a Butler County grand jury Wednesday for public indecency, a fifth-degree felony. If convicted, he faces 12 months behind bars.
Theresa Teague’s 10-year-old daughter was enjoying her new swimming pool June 15 when she ran back inside her house and said, “Edwin was doing something weird out there,” the Hamilton resident told the JournalNews Thursday.
Tobergta was caught in the sex act with an orange inflatable toy that Teague said a neighbor had put out for the trash.
“He was yelling, ‘Please forgive me. I won’t do it again. Don’t call the police,’ ” as he ran back into his house, Teague said.
The girl is now hesitant to play in the back yard, even though she knows Tobergta is in jail, Teague said.
“We are looking at putting her in counseling,” she said
Timothy Teague, the girl’s grandfather, said he is appalled by what happened.
“How can a man — a man — take and do something …. with a rubber raft in front of a 10-year-old child? Its very appalling,” he said.
Theresa Teague moved to the neighborhood in October and said she had no idea about Tobergta’s past.
“I feel like as public citizens, we need to be warned of things like that,” she said.
Tobergta has been arrested several times previously for similar offenses, according to Hamilton Municipal Court records.
In August 2011, he was arrested at his home after he was seen engaging in sexual conduct with a pink inflatable swimming pool raft, according to police records.
The incident allegedly occurred in an alley behind his home. The witness, who was the owner of the raft, reported to police that the suspect took the raft with him after being shouted at to stop, according to records.
After the 2011 arrest, police said Tobergta admitted to the act and told officers that he has a problem and needs help.
Kristen Proffit, a neighbor, said Tobergta is a “nice guy” and that whatever crimes he has committed can be remedied by therapy, not imprisonment.
“I’ve talked to him. He said he was trying to change,” she said.
Theresa Teague said incarceration alone wouldn’t help Tobergta.
“This man needs to have some sort of psychiatric evaluation … instead of turning back to living next door,” she said.
After a 2008 conviction for felony public indecency, Tobergta was sentenced to five years community control.
In that incident, officers responded to a home on Howell Avenue to a report of a naked man standing in a neighbor’s yard and engaging in sexual activity, according to records.
Butler County Common Pleas Judge Noah Powers said in 2oo8 that he sentenced Tobergta to community control so he could get help for a mental disability and drug problems.
In 2006, Tobergta was charged with public indecency and aggravated menacing while being held at the Butler County Jail. Deputies reported that Tobergta began to remove his uniform and exposed his genitals to a corrections officer.
Deputies reported that Tobergta refused to put his uniform back on, attempted to grab an officer and then threatened that officer.
Tobergta is being held at the Butler County Jail on $25,000 bond. He is scheduled to be arraigned July 23 before Butler County Common Pleas Judge Charles Pater.
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