When a Lovell man publicly exposed himself in Powell and Cody last year, prosecutors said it was a continuation of a decades-long pattern of behavior.

Charging documents say Dennis Thompson, 54, openly pleasured himself while driving on a Cody street and while parked at a Powell store last May. And court records indicate that the incidents represented Thompson’s fifth and sixth convictions related to indecent exposure since 1995.

“He’s been given 28 years of chances, and it’s time to pay the piper,” Deputy Park County Attorney Jack Hatfield said last week, as he recommended a year’s worth of jail time. “It is time for Mr. Thompson to stop doing this, and clearly the only way he’s going to stop doing this is if he is serving a lengthy jail sentence as a deterrent …”

The two women who unwillingly witnessed Thompson’s sex acts last year echoed that recommendation, also asking for the maximum sentence on the two misdemeanor counts of public indecency.

While Thompson’s defense attorney asked for a shorter sentence and mandatory treatment, Park County Circuit Court Joey Darrah sided with the prosecution and imposed a 340-day jail sentence.

“Nobody should ever have to see on the street … what they saw,” Darrah said.

In emotional remarks, Thompson apologized for his actions and expressed a desire to undergo treatment. He said he recently began working with a counselor who, among other things, is helping him work through years of molestation he suffered as a child.

The abuse was “swept under the rug, and it was never addressed,” he said. “And it’s been eating away at me my whole life.”

Records presented in court indicate Thompson was first prosecuted for indecent exposure in Layton, Utah, in 1995. He ran into trouble in Powell in June 1998, after driving around the Northwest College campus while nude; Thompson reportedly told a responding police officer that he’d done it roughly 15 times before without getting caught.

Thompson was also cited for exposing himself in Lovell on two occasions in January 2006, followed by last May’s incidents in Park County.

In early May, records say a woman stopped at a traffic light on Cody’s Sheridan Avenue, looked over and saw a man sexually touching himself in his vehicle. The suspect was identified as Thompson later that month, when another woman saw him using a sex toy while parked outside the Powell Albertsons.

Both of the women, who are Powell residents, submitted victim impact statements to the court.

“Everyone should feel safe to be out in public without becoming a witness to the indecent and pornographic things that I had the displeasure of viewing last summer,” said one of the women. She said it appeared that Thompson “was wanting to put on a show” and described that mindset as “terrifying.”

Both women described how they were negatively impacted by what they saw, but expressed particular concern that a child could have witnessed Thompson’s sexual actions.

In his remarks, Thompson said he was “so deeply sorry for the victims.”

The defendant said he long thought that he wasn’t hurting anyone, but “I’m realizing and learning now that harm isn’t just physical, and I was hurting people.”

Thompson started seeing a counselor on Feb. 20 — shortly after Hatfield disclosed he would be seeking a year-long sentence; citing that timeline, plus Thompson’s previous reluctance to undergo a court-ordered psychosexual evaluation in the 1998 case, Hatfield questioned how seriously the defendant was taking the need for treatment.

Thompson said the only reason he’d delayed the recent counseling was because he thought he wasn’t supposed to discuss his pending criminal case with anyone.

“I want to conquer it, and I want to destroy it. And I want to get rid of it,” he said, referring to his public exposures. “And [have] it not have any hold on me ever again.”

In requesting a short jail term, Thompson’s court-appointed attorney, Travis Smith, noted in part the absence of mental health services at the Park County Detention Center. Smith contended that supervision and counseling would address Thompson’s behavior, saying the research he’s reviewed indicates that recidivism “dramatically decreases” when a defendant is in treatment.

Before imposing the 340 days of jail time, Darrah expressed sympathy for the abuse that Thompson described suffering as a child and said the defendant needs help.

“I’m sorry that you have to go to jail for a long time,” Darrah said, “but I think it’s necessary under the circumstances. You have to take some accountability.”

To give Thompson enough time to obtain a new psychosexual evaluation, the judge delayed the start of his sentence until May 30.