Lockport man accused of exposing himself on woman’s doorbell camera

A Lockport man has been jailed in connection with exposing himself on a doorbell camera belonging to a 51-year-old woman.

About 2 a.m. Friday, Stephen Richardson, 36, was taken to the Will County jail on a misdemeanor charge of public indecency. A detention hearing was set to take place Friday, but Richardson was removed from the courtroom by a Will County sheriff’s deputy after he kept talking to people and looking at them in the gallery.

The investigation that led to Richardson’s arrest began about 10:40 p.m. Monday, when Lockport police officers responded to a report from a 51-year-old woman of indecent exposure, according to a statement from Lockport police Deputy Chief Ron Huff.

Huff said the woman said she received a notification from her doorbell camera that a video had been recorded. The woman viewed the video and allegedly saw Richardson standing in front of her door with his pants at his ankles, he said.

Richardson had exposed himself while facing the camera, Huff said.

Huff said it was not possible for him to say why Richardson was at the specific door, so police do not know if it was a targeted or random incident.

Detectives received the doorbell camera video and obtained a warrant for Richardson’s arrest. The warrant said Richardson is unemployed, and he had “prior threats to fight [the police].”

The warrant mandated the detainment of Richardson until his pretrial detention hearing. Public indecency is not among the charges eligible for detainment under the SAFE-T Act.

The woman petitioned a protective order against Richardson on Friday morning. The woman’s petition claimed that Richardson had exposed himself on her Ring camera. The petition said she didn’t want to have a “neighbor that exposes himself to people in our neighborhood.”