Bloom Denies Indecent Exposure Charge

Castaic Town Council member Gene Roy Bloom pleaded not guilty Thursday to one count of indecent exposure, stemming from an accusation by a neighbor.

Because of the publicity the charge has already generated, the judge who took the plea declared that Bloom’s trial should not be held in the Santa Clarita Valley.

Bloom, 36, the brother-in-law of state Atty. Gen. Daniel Lungren, was charged last month after a 20-year-old female neighbor accused him of letting his robe fall open as she walked by his house on the morning of Jan. 25. Bloom has denied the accusation.

His attorney, Barry Levin, argued that a fair trial in Santa Clarita is impossible because of local newspaper reports that up to nine other women have experienced similar encounters with Bloom.

Most of the published complaints came from neighbors, although some were from the sisters of Bloom’s wife, Elizabeth. These women alleged that the incidents occurred while they were visiting the Bloom home. Elizabeth Bloom is Lungren’s sister.

Levin blamed Lt. Barbara Persten, head of the detective bureau at the Santa Clarita Valley Sheriff’s Station, for publicly discussing the additional allegations.

“What Persten did single-handedly in this valley was destroy his credibility,” he said.

Levin also said Persten was unfairly influencing Santa Clarita Valley residents by implying that she believes Bloom is guilty of the charge against him.

Persten said the accusations she discussed with reporters had already been disclosed by others. In addition, she said that belief in a suspect’s guilt is not unusual for law-enforcement officers.

“If we didn’t think that somebody had committed a crime, we wouldn’t take it to the district attorney and ask them to file charges,” she said.

The motion to move the trial to Van Nuys went unchallenged by Deputy Dist. Atty. Jacquelyn Lacey.

“I worked up here before and I know it’s a small town,” Lacey said. “There has been a lot of pretrial publicity, and I thought it was important to preserve the integrity of the system.”

Bloom is free on his own recognizance. He faces up to one year in County Jail if convicted.