BAY CITY, MI — A Bay County Sheriff's deputy testified that after he told a local man he was caught on camera smearing feces on a church and masturbating, the man immediately turned apologetic.

The deputy, Barry Gatza, was called to the witness stand during the Thursday, June 26, preliminary examination of 20-year-old Joshua A. Gorski.

Gatza said he reviewed a DVD of surveillance camera footage recorded at New Hope Baptist Church, 3360 E. Midland Road in Bangor Township. Pertinent footage started occurring at 5:58 p.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 19.

The footage showed a skinny man ride up to the church on a bicycle, take his pants off and seemingly defecate, Gatza said.

"Afterwards, he pulled his pants back up and it appeared that he had taken off his shoes and his socks and then he put his socks on his hands," Gatza testified. "He reached down and came back into the camera view. It looked like he was making a snowball with a brown material and started smearing it on the door and the window."

The man then took his socks off his hands and retrieved a book or magazine from his bike, Gatza said. He "then sat down on the steps in front of the door, pulled his pants down and proceeded to masturbate."

Gatza said he made contact with Gorski in person some days later, after a woman identified Gorski as the culprit.

"I asked him if he knew what I was there to talk to him about," Gatza said. "He originally started telling me this story that the previous day, he was at Walgreens and got into an argument with a clerk. I told him I didn't really care about that, it was about something else. I asked him to tell me about the last time he went to church. He didn't say anything. I just sort of nodded, I said, 'You know it was on camera right?' He sort of dipped his head and just started confessing.

"He said he did it four or five times in the past," the deputy continued. "He stated that he did it because he lives in a small apartment with his family, that he doesn't have the privacy that he needs. He felt sorry for it, he was very apologetic. As soon as I told him it was on camera, he was very cooperative with the investigation and didn't try to deny anything."

During testimony, the shackled and jumpsuited Gorski frequently shifted in his seat and leaned his head back, looking toward the ceiling. When a Times photographer snapped photos of him from one side of the courtroom, he would turn to face the opposite wall.

Before Gatza testified, Bay County Assistant Prosecutor J. Dee Brooks called to the witness stand, Matthew Perry, property management team leader of the church. Perry testified that in 2013, the church started experiencing fecal-related vandalism — bathroom walls smeared in the substance, writing on the walls, drawings of female anatomy. Eventually, the activity started occurring outside of the bathroom, Perry said.

Perry said the church responded by trying to limit access to the vandalized areas, but when that didn't work, they added surveillance cameras in the summer of 2013. On the morning of Wednesday, Nov. 20, Perry went to the church and discovered feces smeared on the south door and a window, he said.

"It was smeared over the window, above and beside the door, the door handle, the door lock, the door surface itself," he said. Perry said he called police before he and his two sons cleaned up the mess, which took about an hour and a half. Perry said he also viewed surveillance footage.

Perry said he didn't recognize the man the camera captured, but he could clearly see his face. Asked by Brooks if he saw the same person in the courtroom, Perry identified Gorski as the man.

Perry said they also found two feces-stained socks in a bush near the church's door.

After Gatza testified, Brooks asked Bay County District Judge Mark E. Janer to bind Gorski over to Circuit Court for trial on charges of malicious destruction of property less than $200 and aggravated indecent exposure. Gorski's defense attorney, Bruce K. Mannikko, objected to the bind over, but Janer granted Brooks' request.

Gorski's next court date is pending.