UMass flasher identified
The serial flasher who exposed himself to women at UMass Dartmouth has been identified.
According to a police report obtained from the New Bedford District Court, Patrick Brown, 19, a commuter student from Ledyard, Connecticut, has been charged with one account of open and gross lewdness. Brown will be arraigned on the felony charge on Feb. 12.
On Dec. 1, UMass police announced that the suspect had been identified and removed from campus. At the time, Brown had not been identified.
Brown had exposed his genitalia to female students in the parking lots around campus on four separate occasions between late October and mid-November.
On Nov. 16, the same day as the fourth incident, UMass police received a report from a commuter student who had received a lewd text message from Brown.
The female commuter student reported that she had found a note on the windshield of her vehicle in early November. There was a phone number on the note, and, thinking there was damage to her car, she called the number. The man who answered said he thought she was “cute,” and the call ended.
The student said she received an obscene text message from the number a couple days later, which included a photo of male genitalia. When the student asked who was sending the messages, the man replied “this is Patrick.”
Detective Ernest Belliveau checked Brown’s class schedule, most of which lined up the times and locations of the reported incidents. On Nov. 30, Belliveau called Brown and asked him to come in for questioning.
When Brown arrived at the station, he was led to an interview room. The detective informed Brown that the room was audio and videotaped and then asked Brown if he knew why he was called in. Brown said that it must have something to do with leaving his phone number on cars.
When asked how many cars he had left his number on, Brown replied “several.” Brown was then read his Miranda rights and asked if he wanted to continue. He did.
During the interview, Brown admitted to leaving the note and sending the lewd photo. The police report states that, when asked, Brown said he sent the obscene photo because he had a “hard time socializing with the opposite sex.”
Brown also admitted to exposing himself to four women on campus, confirming the time and dates of all four incidents.
According to the police report, Brown said he did it because he wanted “to see how long he could keep his genitalia out before someone noticed.”
Brown has since been “interim suspended from the university.” The case remains open and under investigation.