By DAN POMPILI

Staff writer

BOARDMAN — A man with a history of public indecency is due in court today, facing another such allegation. Kevin Lee Edinger, 49, of Painesville, was arrested Wednesday afternoon at Walmart after allegedly touching himself indecently and following women around the store. He is due in Mahoning County Boardman Court this afternoon on a charge of indecent exposure.

The police report states that while no customers were aware of Edinger’s alleged indecent actions, he was caught on security camera engaging in extremely lewd conduct in the women’s clothing section and customers were in the area at the time.

The report states that Walmart security notified police that Edinger left the store and got into a gray four-door sedan with Pennsylvania plates. Police arrested Edinger after conducting a traffic stop in the parking lot as he was trying to drive away from the store.

A Walmart manager identified Edinger as the person in the store after police confronted him in the parking lot. The report states that he was booked and released with a warning not to return to Walmart. Edinger’s charge for indecent exposure was elevated to a first-degree misdemeanor from third-degree because of prior convictions for the same offense.

The Boardman police report lists a Painesville address, but Edinger also has ties to New Florence, Pennsylvania, and a lengthy criminal history in Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania.

A representative from the Westmoreland County District Attorney’s Office said that in April 2016, Edinger pleaded guilty to a series of consolidated cases, with charges ranging from felony robbery, burglary, theft, and aggravated assault on a police officer to misdemeanors, including presenting false identification and indecent exposure.

The false ID and aggravated assault charges stem from a May 2015 incident in which he was caught trying to hitchhike near an elementary school and attempted to flee when confronted by police.

He was sentenced to a total of two to four years in a state prison and a maximum of six years of probation. He was out by 2019.

Lake County court records show that Edinger was convicted of two counts of indecent exposure and one count of menacing by stalking, which occurred in October and November 2019.

He pleaded guilty in February 2020 to felony charges of menacing and indecent exposure and one misdemeanor exposure count was dismissed. He was sentenced to two years in the Lorain Correctional Institution. Records also show he was divorced in 2020 while in prison.