A man accused of peeping in the window of a Rugby, N.D., home and publicly masturbating made his first appearance in state District Court Tuesday.
John Alexander Markham, 48, was being held on $10,000 bail at the Heart of America Correctional and Treatment Center in Rugby.
Markham was arrested after a woman looked out her window early Sunday and saw him in her backyard peering into the home she shares with her husband, said Galen Mack, the Pierce County State's Attorney.
Markham was allegedly exposing himself and masturbating in the yard, which is next to a street, an alley and a state highway, according to a criminal complaint.
Mack said police were called, and officers found Markham standing where the woman had first spotted him. Mack said the couple did not know Markham, who was possibly intoxicated when he was arrested.
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Markham, who lives in Rugby, is charged with indecent exposure and surreptitious intrusion. Both are felonies because he was convicted of indecent exposure in 2006 in Bottineau County, N.D., Mack said.
In court Tuesday, Markham requested a court-appointed attorney. A message left for him at the jail was not returned Tuesday. He's due back in court Nov. 10.
If convicted, Markham would face a maximum prison term of 10 years. He would also have to register as a sex offender, Mack said.
