A 57-year-old man who has been convicted five times of public indecency was sentenced to 1 ⅔ years in prison for masturbating in front of an 11-year-old girl who was riding a TriMet bus to ice skating practice at the Lloyd Center mall.

David William Besthoff told the girl she was pretty and that he was sorry if he was making her uncomfortable but he couldn’t help himself, according to a probable cause affidavit describing the May 30 encounter.

David William Besthoff has five public indecency convictions over the past 19 years: one in 2000, another in 2007 and three in 2019, according to court records. (Multnomah County Sheriff's Office)

The girl was so upset she got off the No. 17 bus, skipped ice skating practice and caught another bus home, according to the affidavit. Her mother called police, but they couldn’t immediately identify Besthoff and make an arrest.

The next day in a separate case, Besthoff appeared in Multnomah County Circuit Court to plead guilty to two counts of felony public indecency for masturbating in front of two women in different instances on Aug. 8, 2018, while riding MAX trains in downtown Portland.

Police who reviewed TriMet surveillance video also saw him masturbating that same day in front of a group of three girls or young women, according to the affidavit. But he didn’t admit guilt in that alleged instance.

Unaware of Besthoff’s crime from May 30, on May 31 Judge Katharine von Ter Stegge sentenced Besthoff in the MAX train cases to 45 days in jail and sex offender treatment as outlined in a plea agreement.

It took more than a week after that for police and prosecutors to identify, track down and charge Besthoff for masturbating in front of the 11-year-old girl on the bus. He told jailers he had been homeless for the past month and living on public assistance. He said he also suffered from depression.

Besthoff was scheduled to go to trial this week, but lastThursday, he pleaded guilty to felony public indecency.

As part of his latest plea agreement, Judge Benjamin Souede sentenced Besthoff to 20 months in prison, plus three years of post-prison supervision.

Besthoff also had previously been found guilty of public indecency in 2000 and 2007.

-- Aimee Green

agreen@oregonian.com

o_aimee

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