Gainesville man arrested for indecent exposure on Hawthorne Connection Trail was also arrested last year for indecent exposure

Staff report

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Tracy Leon Smith, Jr., 36, was arrested late last night and charged with indecent exposure after allegedly taking off his clothes and exposing himself to a runner on the Hawthorne Connection Trail.

The victim was reportedly running on the trail near 1100 S. Main Street at about 8:15 p.m. last night when she saw a man, fully clothed, riding a bicycle toward her. She said that she briefly looked down, and when she looked up, the man had gotten off his bicycle and was standing on the trail, fully naked, with his sexual organs exposed.

The victim said she ran away from the naked man and called her boyfriend, who arrived a short time later to pick her up. The boyfriend went with her to confront the man, and they said that when they made contact with him, his underwear was partially on and he was still partially exposed. The victim and her boyfriend left the area.

The victim’s boyfriend called 911, but by the time a Gainesville Police Department officer arrived, the man had disappeared. However, a GPD officer had responded to a call at about 8 p.m. the previous evening in which a man with the same description had been caught masturbating on a Ring doorbell camera in the 800 block of SW 11th Street.

At about 8:53 p.m. last night, the same officer responded to a call about someone lurking in an abandoned residence in the 900 block of SW 9th Street. The officer found Smith and noted that he matched the description of the subject previously caught on the doorbell camera. The officer detained Smith, and the victim and her boyfriend positively identified him as the man they had seen naked on the trail.

Post Miranda, Smith reportedly said that he had been on the bike trail when he noticed his boxers were on backward, so he stopped and took them off to put them back on correctly. When the officer asked Smith whether he had masturbated in front of the doorbell camera, he reportedly said, “If I was touching myself it was because I have not had intercourse with a woman in a long while.”

Smith was previously charged with indecent exposure and drug possession in October 2022; he entered a plea of nolo contendere to the drug charge about three weeks later and was sentenced to 180 days in jail with credit for 23 days served. The indecent exposure charge was dropped.

Criminal history and bail information has not yet been posted.

Articles about arrests are based on reports from law enforcement agencies. The charges listed are taken from the arrest report and/or court records and are only accusations. All suspects are innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.