Library Exhibitionist Trial Set for July

Robert Bruce Engel, the man accused of masturbating in front of teenaged girls in the Rancho Santa Margarita Library, will have a jury trial on July 16.

Engel was in court last week for a preliminary hearing on one felony count of indecent exposure with prior convictions. Engel is a registered sex offender and has pleaded not guilty.

If convicted, the Mission Viejo man faces a maximum of three years in state prison.

According to the District Attorney's office, Engel sat on a bench at the library across from three teenage girls and placed a newspaper over his lap and masturbated himself on May 9, 2011.

The girls reported the incident to the librarian but, authorities said, Engel left before deputies could arrive. They searched the neighborhood but could not locate him.

Exactly one week later, Engel was again at the library when he was . Sheriff's deputies found him in the back of the library reading a newspaper. While he was detained, a 15-year-old girl who witnessed the incident a week earlier was brought to the library and identified him as the man she had seen.

The trial is scheduled for July 16, 9 a.m. at the Central Justice Center in Santa Ana.