WENHAM — A Gloucester man charged with exposing himself to a Gordon College coed Monday insisted through his attorney yesterday that he was simply changing clothes in his car as he drove to a gym.
But John Maletti also promised yesterday to immediately get in touch with his counselor at a sex offender treatment program he was required to attend as part of his probation in a 2005 Boston case in which he was charged with indecent assault and battery on a child under 14.
Maletti, 24, pleaded not guilty yesterday to one count of open and gross lewdness during his arraignment in Newburyport District Court.
Prosecutor Kate Hartigan asked Judge Allen Swan to increase Maletti's bail from the $500 set by a bail commissioner shortly after his arrest to $1,000, citing the fact that he was on probation for a sex offense when arrested.
Swan denied the request, but ordered Maletti to stay away from the woman.
On Monday the woman told police that as she was walking on Grapevine Road near Route 128, a man in a black Jeep Liberty sport utility vehicle pulled up and asked for directions to Manchester, Hartigan told the judge.
When she walked up to the window she saw that he had no pants on, and said Maletti made what the prosecutor called "profane" comments to her.
He then continued following her as she walked back to the campus, where she immediately notified security.
Police tracked down Maletti with the partial license plate number the woman provided and Maletti was arrested Tuesday evening in Gloucester, where he lives with his parents.
Probation officers said they had been told that their counterparts in the Boston Municipal Court were seeking a warrant for Maletti for violating his probation and asked that he be held in custody.
But when no warrant had been entered in a statewide warrant database by 12:30 p.m., defense lawyer Charlene Stawicki asked that Maletti be released.
"If they don't issue a warrant, there's nothing I can do," Swan said. That's when Hartigan asked for the increase in bail.
Stawicki said her client, a recent college grad who is interning at Choate, Hall and Stewart, a prominent Boston law firm, told her that he was changing into gym clothing as he was trying to get to the Manchester Athletic Club.
While Swan released Maletti after yesterday's hearing, he ordered the Gloucester man to report first thing this morning to the Boston Municipal Court.
"Your honor, I thank you for that," Maletti said. "I won't reoffend."
He is due back in court on Nov. 13.
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