BAY CITY, MI — A 45-year-old Bay City man who twice went through a McDonald's drive-thru, exposing himself both times, has avoided further incarceration time.

Bay County District Judge Timothy J. Kelly on Monday, Oct. 13, sentenced Cory D. Peterson to two years of probation. He also ordered him to pay $1,535 in court fines and costs and instructed him to complete an outpatient sex offender rehabilitation program.

Kelly sentenced Peterson to 133 days in jail, but gave him credit for the full time served.

Peterson in August pleaded no contest to a charge of indecent exposure. The charge is a misdemeanor punishable by up to one year in jail and a $1,000 fine. A no contest plea is not an admission of guilt but is treated as such for the purposes of sentencing.

In exchange, the prosecution dismissed a count of aggravated indecent exposure. Normally a two-year high court misdemeanor, Peterson's prior convictions would have increased the maximum potential penalty to 15 years' imprisonment.

The August plea was the second one Peterson entered in the case. In March, Peterson pleaded no contest to the more severe count, but Bay County Circuit Judge Harry P. Gill in May allowed him to withdraw that plea when he indicated he wouldn't follow a sentencing agreement of one year in jail and probation after learning of the defendant's 2002 conviction of fourth-degree criminal sexual conduct.

Gill also remanded Peterson's bond at that time and had him held in the Bay County Jail. On Wednesday, Sept. 3, Peterson posted bond.

Peterson's charge stems from an incident that happened the night of Sunday, Sept. 8, when police responded to a call of a male subject masturbating in the drive-thru of the McDonald's at 314 Washington Ave.

The 24-year-old female manager told officers that she collected the customer's money after he ordered a McDouble. When she went to give him his change, she saw his privates were exposed and he was touching himself, she told police.

"I was in shock when I saw it," the woman told officers. "He said, 'Have a nice day.' Then he drove away."

A few minutes later, the same customer came back, placed another order and exposed himself to another female employee, the manager told police. The manager called 911 and had her employee stall the customer by having him park, telling him they were cooking his fries. The customer parked as instructed.

Responding officers found Peterson sitting in his parked truck in the fast food restaurant's lot. His jeans were zipped and his belt fastened, police noted in their reports. Peterson said he went through the drive-thru twice but denied exposing himself.

Officers arrested him at the scene.

Peterson's criminal record includes convictions of attempted possession of narcotics in 1990 and 1998, attempted malicious destruction of property more than $100 and carrying a concealed weapon in 1991 and breaking and entering with intent in 1992, plus the criminal sexual conduct conviction in 2003. Due to that last conviction, Peterson must register as a sex offender until Jan. 21, 2028.