ROGERSVILLE, Tennessee - A female customer at the Rogersville Goody's store on Route 66 was shocked Friday to discover a man allegedly performing a sex act by himself in the "Junior Miss" section of the store.
Police said the alleged perpetrator, Jimmy William Cutshall, 35, 301 Park Blvd., Rogersville, didn't know he'd been seen. The woman found her female companion in the store, and together they called the Rogersville Police Department to report the incident, but the suspect had gone by the time officers arrived.
The two women watched store and parking lot surveillance videos with police, and the witness pointed out Cutshall as he entered the store and then again as he left the store and drove out of the parking lot in a green Jeep.
Cutshall wasn't arrested until Sunday, however.
Police knew what the suspect looked like and what he drove. But police didn't know who Cutshall was until one of the female Goody's customers - not the witness, but her companion - noticed Cutshall walking to his green Jeep in the Rogersville Wal-Mart parking lot. The woman called RPD Detective Jim Shanks at his home, and Shanks in turn called a patrolman who intercepted Cutshall.
Cutshall agreed to accompany the officer to the police station, and Shanks said he eventually gave a statement admitting to exposing himself during a sexual act at the Goody's store on Friday. Cutshall was charged with indecent exposure.
Shanks told the Times-News Monday that the witness from Goody's was understandably upset by what she reported seeing Cutshall doing. Shanks added that because Cutshall was in a children's section he's thankful that no children witnessed what he was doing as well.
"I'd hate to have to try to explain that to a 3- or 4-year-old," Shanks said. "His statement was pretty concise, and he never made an attempt to explain himself. He wasn't there to shop. He told me he went to Goody's for that purpose, but he thought he was in the (adult) women's section and didn't realize he was in the 'Junior Miss' section.
"(The eyewitness) said that he looked her right in the eye, but he said he didn't realize he'd been seen until we arrested him."
Shanks said Cutshall has a history of similar arrests in Greene County, and depending on the disposition of those arrests the charge against Cutshall could be increased from a Class B misdemeanor to a Class A misdemeanor with higher fines and jail time.
Cutshall is scheduled for arraignment in Hawkins County Sessions Court on Jan. 30.
