Library Exhibitionist Goes It Alone

Robert Bruce Engel is going it alone.

The man convicted of indecent exposure in front of a pair of teenaged girls in the Rancho Santa Margarita Library was supposed to be sentenced last week in Orange County Superior Court.

However, Engel's sentencing was continued until Feb. 1, 2013, after the Mission Viejo man changed attorneys.

Now, he's representing himself. Engel has used at least two other attorneys.

Engel was convicted of one felony count of indecent exposure on Oct. 4, stemming from an event that took place May 9, 2011. He was found guilty by the court of placing a newspaper over his lap and masturbating in the presence of the girls. He left prior to the police arriving.

Exactly one week later, Engel was recognized by a librarian, who called the Orange County Sheriff's Department. Engel, reading a newspaper, was confronted by the police and taken into custody.

He is free on $20,000 bail.

Engel pleaded guilty to three counts of misdemeanor indecent exposure in 1997 and was placed on three years' probation.

Four months after his probation ended, he was charged with one count of indecent exposure, this time considered a felony, and in 2002 was sentenced to three years in state prison after being found guilty by a jury.