By MONA NAIR
6 News Reporter
HARRIMAN (WATE) – A man has been arrested for fondling himself while looking at children in a local park.
Investigators say several parents and children watched Brendon Luffman in the act at Roane County Park. The incident took place in the swimming area.
They say he also made inappropriate comments to some teenage girls.
"I bring my kids here usually everyday in the summer," Barbara Layne said. Layne says it was a convenient, free and fun place to bring her three daughters until this incident.
"A couple days this week we had seen this guy sitting out there by the water, and he would stare at the kids," Layne said.
She says Luffman was in the water one day when some of the kids came up to her saying they were scared of him.
"After the kids told me they were scared, I watched him closer. His hands were always under the water. It looked like he was motioning under the water like he was doing something under the water," Layne explained.
Layne went over to some of the other parents who had observed the same thing. She says about 20 children and 6 adults watched him in the act.
"He came out of the water and was wiping his hands on his shorts, pulling his shorts like he was rinsing himself out," Layne described.
At that point she says several of the adults confronted Luffman.
"They asked him what he was doing in the water. He said 'I'm not doing anything,'" Layne said.
Investigators also got complaints that Luffman had made inappropriate comments to some young women there that week.
"He was talking about the girl's anatomy, and how she looked good. Things of that nature," Roane County Sheriff Jack Stockton said.
While Luffman has been arrested now, moms like Layne are still a little too freaked to enjoy the park they way the had before.
"I've only been here one time after that, and I was watching to make sure he didn't come back out here," Layne said.
Luffman does not have any history of sex crimes. However, he has been in jail a few times. His history includes assault and disorderly conduct.
Investigators say several parents and children watched Brendon Luffman in the act at Roane County Park. The incident took place in the swimming area.
