Public Indecency Lands Joliet Man In Will Co. Jail: Sheriff

JOLIET — The Will County State's Attorney's Office has filed charges against a 36-year-old Joliet man in what appears to be the county's first public masturbation prosecution for 2025. In recent days, the Will County's prosecutors charged Michael Martin, who comes from the 300 block of Davison Street, with public indecency and disorderly conduct.

The crimes were investigated by the Will County Sheriff's Office. The criminal complaint indicates that back on Oct. 24, Martin, who was 17 years of age or older, committed an act of lewd exposure of the body with the intent to arouse or satisfy sexual desire, said lewd exposure being public masturbation, in a public place.

The name of a female victim is listed in the second charge of disorderly conduct. The complaint indicates that Martin knowingly masturbated in such unreasonable manner as to alarm or disturb another and to provoke a breach of the peace."

Martin has been kept in the Will County Jail since Jan. 19, he also was arrested on that date by the sheriff's office on a domestic battery charge.

According to this week's new criminal charges for Martin, he faces two counts of aggravated battery and three counts of domestic battery, in connection with an incident in November that the Will County Sheriff's Office also investigated. Martin is accused of attacking an older man, striking the man in the arm and about the man's body.