Naugatuck man accused of lewd act in public for third time this year

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Elio Gugliotti, Editor

Francis Scott Keen

NAUGATUCK — For the third time in five months, police say a 66-year-old registered sex offender committed a lewd act in public.

Police arrested Francis Scott Keen, of 18 Barnum Court, Naugatuck, at about 7 p.m. Nov. 17 after they say he was masturbating in public downtown.

Deputy Police Chief C. Colin McAllister said a woman, who was driving past Salem School with a child in the car, told police she saw Keen exposing and fondling himself near the playscape at Salem Elementary School on Meadow Street.

When officers arrived, McAllister said, they spotted Keen with his pants unbuckled on a bench on the Green, which is across the street from the school. Keen tried to walk away when he saw the officers, McAllister said.

Officers found Keen with a bottle of baby oil, police said.

Police charged Keen with public indecency, second-degree breach of peace and loitering in or about school. Police held Keen on a $25,000 bond, which was doubled when he appeared in Waterbury Superior Court on Nov. 18. He was held on bond and scheduled to appear in court again on Dec. 9.

This is the third time in the past five months Naugatuck police charged Keen in connection with a public indecency incident.

On June 19, police arrested Keen after they say he was masturbating in the gazebo on the Green in the afternoon.

On Aug. 21, officers charged Keen after police say they found him with his pants and belt undone sitting on a rock on the side of Fairview Avenue. Police said Keen had several bottles of lubricant in his possession at the time.

These cases are still pending in Superior Court, according to online judicial records.

Keen is a registered sex offender.

In 1998, he was convicted of risk of injury to a child after he appeared to masturbate with his hands down his pants in front of two children, 14 and 15, according to the Connecticut Sex Offender Registry.

In 2010, Keen was convicted of risk of injury to a child after approaching boys in a public area and masturbating while making sexual comments, records show.