Ex-County Official Gets Suspended Term

A high-ranking Ventura County administrator who resigned after being arrested in January for exposing himself at a local department store was sentenced Friday to a one-year suspended jail term, probation and community service.

In handing out the sentence, Ventura County Superior Court Judge Lawrence Storch said William E. Murchie, 66, apparently suffered from a psychological problem but that he probably would not offend again.

Storch said Murchie, a land-lease manager with the county, appears to have been traumatized by publicity from his arrest and embarrassment by his actions.

“The days of him exposing himself, as far as this court is concerned, have come to an end,” Storch said, adding that he would consider ordering Murchie to serve the jail term in December if the defendant does not perform the community service as expected.

Murchie’s attorney, Mark Pachowicz, asked that his client be allowed to work in his old job with the county for the community service. Storch, however, said Murchie would probably do the same type of work as every other defendant assigned to the program.

“He may be folding sheets” at the county hospital, the judge said.

Murchie pleaded guilty in April to two counts of indecent exposure, but those were not his first offenses for such conduct. In 1967, Murchie was convicted of disturbing the peace in Los Angeles County for an indecent-exposure related incident. In 1984, he was convicted in Ventura County for indecent exposure.