Newhall man sentenced for lewd conduct

Suspect, who had been arrested 9 times since August 2016, set to serve 360 days in jail

A man arrested for indecent exposure four times in 18 months was sentenced Tuesday to just under a year in county jail, after pleading no contest to the latest offense and admitting he violated probation on six other offenses.

Harry Joshua Hirst, 45, of Newhall, sometimes identified in arrest reports prepared by Santa Clarita Valley Sheriff’s Station deputies as a transient, sometimes unemployed, as a laborer or working in construction, was arrested in the SCV on Jan. 30 on suspicion of indecent exposure.

It was the ninth time Hirst was arrested since August 2016.

Hirst appeared in court Tuesday at the Santa Clarita Courthouse where he entered his plea.

Hirst pleaded no contest Wednesday to a misdemeanor, engaging in lewd conduct, according to Ricardo Santiago, spokesman for the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office.

He was also ordered to stay away from a coffee shop on Lyons, near Peachland Avenue, he said.

Hirst also admitted being in violation of probation on six prior cases, Santiago said.

“In one of those cases, he remains on probation simultaneously with the new (Jan. 30) case,” he said. “In the other five cases, he was sentenced to 360 days in the county jail.”

Santiago noted probation in each of those five cases is expected to “terminate upon his release from jail.”

When deputies arrested Hirst shortly before 1 a.m. on Jan. 30, it was the second time they had arrested him that month. They arrested him on Jan. 6 on suspicion of indecent exposure.

“Harry Hirst was charged with one count of engaging in lewd conduct in violation of 647(a)PC a misdemeanor,” Sgt. Ron Price told The Signal on Jan. 31.

“Harry Joshua Hirst did unlawfully engage in lewd and dissolute conduct in a public place and in a place open to the public and exposed to public view,” Price said, noting deputies filed the case at the Santa Clarita Courthouse.