Santa Clarita / Antelope Valley : Castaic Official Charged With Indecent Exposure : Courts: Gene Roy Bloom, a town council member, faces neighbor’s accusation. Nine others make similar complaints.

A member of the Castaic town council has been charged with indecently exposing himself to a 20-year-old female neighbor, prompting nine other women to make similar accusations against him, authorities said.

Gene Roy Bloom, 36, allegedly exposed himself to the women by nonchalantly changing position while wearing loose-fitting clothing such as shorts or an open bathrobe while visiting with them, said Lt. Barbara Persten of the Santa Clarita Valley Sheriff’s Station.

Most of the complaints have been from neighbors, although three came from sisters of Bloom’s brother-in-law, state Atty. Gen. Dan Lungren, Persten said.

Bloom is married to Lungren’s sister Elizabeth, whose three sisters have told officials the incidents occurred while they visited Bloom’s house, Persten said.

Steve Telliano, a spokesman for Lungren, confirmed Wednesday that Bloom is the attorney general’s brother-in-law but added that “this office has no involvement in the matter and it would be highly inappropriate for anyone to make any comment.”

Bloom faces one misdemeanor count of indecent exposure to the neighbor in January, but is unlikely to be charged with the other allegations because the women say they occurred more than a year ago, Persten added.

“Because of the statute of limitations, they cannot be (used) in a criminal complaint,” Persten said. “However, (the women) are expected to be witnesses if the case goes to trial.”

Bloom’s attorney, Barry Levin, said his client is “absolutely innocent” of the exposure charge. Levin said he was unaware of the other complaints against Bloom and does not expect that they would come up at the trial.

“If you’re prosecuting someone, you have to prosecute them for what they did,” Levin said. “To bring in those other complaints, they have got to clear the legal hurdle of showing their legality and relevancy.”

Attempts to reach Bloom were unsuccessful.

Residents of Castaic, an unincorporated town of 10,000, described Bloom as a community leader who helped establish the town council in 1992 and was its first president.

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“I was just devastated,” said town council President Richard Massey, who said Bloom could be removed from the council if he is convicted. “Whether it’s true or not true, it’s still devastating to anybody’s reputation.”

The matter came to the attention of sheriff’s deputies when Erin Hearne, 20, who lives across the street from Bloom, said she encountered him as she was walking to her nearby nanny job at about 7:20 a.m. on Jan. 25. She said in an interview Wednesday that she told sheriff’s investigators he walked repeatedly between his garage door and front door before exposing himself.

“It looked like he adjusted his bathrobe and when he ran back to the house it flapped back and exposed him,” Hearne said she told investigators. When Bloom got to his door, she told them, “he squatted down and completely exposed himself.” She told deputies she was certain he was aware of her presence.

Hearne said she reported the incident to sheriff’s deputies after learning other neighbors had had similar experiences.

“I don’t want him doing this to anyone else,” she said.

The indecent exposure charge was filed against Bloom on March 6 and he is scheduled to be arraigned April 6 in Newhall Municipal Court, said Deputy Dist. Atty. Dan Damon. Bloom faces up to a year in county jail if convicted.

Other women came forward after learning the complaint was filed, Persten said. One of Lungren’s sisters, for example, told authorities Bloom exposed himself several times to her when she visited him in 1992, the deputy said.