ROBERTSDALE, Ala. — A Robertsdale man with a long history of similar arrests was acquitted last week on indecent exposure charges in a Baldwin County court.

Dana Ross Stegall, 47, of Robertsdale, was acquitted on charges Thursday, Oct. 14. Stegall turned himself in to Robertsdale police on Tuesday, Feb. 16 at his father’s home in Robertsdale.

Stegall was arrested and booked into the Baldwin County Corrections facility on Wednesday, Feb. 17 on three counts of indecent exposure and violation of release order charges in connection with an incident on Friday, Feb. 12 in which two 14-year-old females claimed a man exposed himself in the parking lot of a Robertsdale drug store along Highway 59.

During opening statements in Baldwin County court last week, defense attorney Paul Cater told the jury it was a case of mistaken identity and that the Robertsdale investigators were in a “rush to judgment.”

Cater said Stegall had recently been released from incarceration and his photo was placed in a group of suspects which the girls viewed. He argued that a photo album of suspects is often not reliable for picking perpetrators, even by trained officers.

Cater argued that Stegall was at home at the time, which family members would verify during the course of the trial.

According to Robertsdale Police at the time of his arrest, Stegall had been arrested several times on similar charges over the course of the last 15 or 20 years.

According to records from the Baldwin County Corrections Center, Stegall has been arrested on similar offenses since 1991. Because of current state law, someone convicted of “indecent exposure” can only be sentenced to six months to a year in a county jail.

According to a Baldwin Times story, “In July 1994, he was sentenced to seven, consecutive, one-year prison terms for indecent exposure.”

Just prior to the February incident Stegall had been convicted in connection with a Jan. 13 incident near Interstate 10 in Loxley.

One of his victims in that case is working with local legislators and wants to get the law changed so repeated “indecent exposure” charges can become more than a misdemeanor. Currently, those convicted of the “Class A” misdemeanor serve 6 to 12 months in a county jail.

She would like to see people convicted of “indecent exposure” multiple times have to serve a longer jail sentence as a felon and register as a sex offender so local law enforcement will know of these individuals.

Independent editor John Underwood and Gulf Coast Newspapers county court reporter Graham Heath contributed to this report. Information was also taken from an article by then staff writer Donna Riley-Lein, published in the Feb. 18 edition of The Independent.