James Edward Allen

Courtesy of WCSO

A 41-year-old Milan man accused of masturbating in the Pittsfield Township Kohl's parking lot in December was taken into custody last week and was arraigned Saturday, police said.

James Edward Allen was charged with one count of aggravated indecent exposure, a high-court misdemeanor with a maximum penalty of two years in jail and $2,000 in fines. Allen was released from the Washtenaw County Jail on a personal recognizance bond, according to court records.

The charge stems from Dec. 17 when an 18-year-old Pittsfield Township woman told police she saw Allen masturbating in the front seat of his car in the parking lot of Kohl's, 3160 Lohr Road, said Deputy Police Chief Gordy Schick.

The woman came to Kohl's to do some shopping sometime before 1 p.m. that day. When she parked her car, she noticed a "scruffy" man smoking a cigarette in a red car parked nearby, Schick said. The woman returned to her vehicle about 45 minutes later and saw that the man was still sitting in the car.

“While she was getting into her vehicle, she could still see the white male," Schick said. "She glanced into the compartment of the vehicle ... (and) observed the male subject naked from the waist down, masturbating.”

The woman wrote down the car's license plate and left. She immediately reported the incident to police.

Investigators interviewed Allen by phone and then submitted their report to prosecutors, who authorized the charge, Schick said. Allen was taken into custody by Milan police for an unrelated incident on Friday and the indecent exposure warrant was discovered, Schick added.

A preliminary examination has been scheduled for Feb. 12.

John Counts covers cops and courts for AnnArbor.com. He can be reached at johncounts@annarbor.com or you can follow him on Twitter.