Auburn man charged with indecent exposure on trail

The King County Prosecutor has charged a 55-year-old Auburn man with one count of indecent exposure for allegedly masturbating on a trail in Maple Valley.

Sheriff’s deputies booked Kenton Alan Shaull into jail on Sept. 19. He was released on a $15,000 bond later that day.

His arraignment is at 9 a.m. Thursday, Oct. 4 at the Regional Justice Center in Kent.

According to charging documents, here is what happened:

Around 7 p.m. Sept. 18, deputies were dispatched to reports of a naked man who was fighting another man on a trail near Lake Wilderness Park in Maple Valley, according to charging documents. While deputies were en route, according to the documents, dispatch notified them that the two were no longer fighting, but that the naked man was then walking along the Lake Wilderness trail.

Once on scene, deputies spoke with a woman, who pointed them to where she’d last seen Shaull.

While deputies were searching for Shaull, he popped out of some bushes with a bleeding mouth, the documents state.

Deputies also contacted the man who had reportedly gotten into the fight with Shaull, according to documents.

According to court documents, both men were covered with mud and dirt, and it appeared they had been rolling about on the ground.

Shaull reportedly told deputies the other man had found him in the woods, masturbating, before the two started fighting. According to court documents, Shaull told deputies the other man displayed a firearm while they were fighting.

According to charging documents, Shaull told deputies that he had earlier gone for a drive and felt the trail was private enough for him to have some alone time.

The other man also spoke with deputies at the scene. He told them he and his wife had been walking along the trail when they saw Shaull.

Yes, he did have his firearm on him, the man told deputies, but he didn’t draw it, according to the documents.

The man reported to deputies that he hit Shaull and put him in a choke hold, but that when Shaull began to lose consciousness, he released his grip.

He also said that once Shaull heard him and his wife approaching, he began to walk away, trying to cover himself up as he went.

According to charging documents, the man asked Shaull what he was doing, and within a minute he had dressed himself, and then declared, “I wasn’t naked.”

The woman who had pointed deputies in the direction of Shaull was the man’s wife, and she, too, spoke with deputies. She said that she and her husband had been walking along the trail when they saw Shaull, and that when he heard them approach, he turned and faced them, according to charging documents.

She said Shaull was naked, and that he was holding his shorts in his hand with his shirt draped around his neck, according to court documents.Her husband told him to stop, she said, and that is when she left. According to court documents, she went down the hill because she had the couple’s dog.

She reportedly ran into two other women, and that is when she called 911, according to court documents.

Deputies transported Shaull to an emergency room for treatment of his injuries. When deputies asked Shaull if he wanted to prosecute the other man for assaulting him, Shaull answered “No, I just want this to be over with,” according to court documents.

While at the hospital, charging documents say, Shaull invoked his rights and declined to speak further with deputies.

Among his belongings deputies found porn magazines and sexual items in a bag.

Deputies also spoke with the other two women. The first told deputies she witnessed Shaull swing his bag at the couple before he tried to leave the scene. That is when the two men got into a pushing match, she said, according to court documents.

The second woman told deputies she had witnessed the couple interact with a naked man — later determined to be Shaull — before the two men started to push each other.

According to charging documents, because Shaull had been convicted of indecent exposure in April 2000, this incident constitutes a felony.

According to Shaull’s criminal history, a court dismissed a prior indecent exposure conviction against him, and he was also acquitted of rape of a child.

Editor’s note: The names of the other subjects were not released in the charging documents.