Retired Huntington Park police chief suspected in indecent exposure

An arrest warrant has been issued for the former police chief of Huntington Park, who is wanted on suspicion of lewd conduct and indecent exposure, Anaheim police said Wednesday.

Retired Chief Paul Lawrence Wadley, 56, allegedly left explicit photos of himself on running trails in Anaheim and exposed himself to a woman, Sgt. Rick Martinez said.

Wadley, who retired from the Huntington Park department earlier this year, is believed to be out of the country, Martinez said.

“We were able to get a fingerprint off one of the photos that had his prints,” Martinez said of Wadley, a 30-year veteran of the Huntington Park police force. “The suspect matched the description of the guy who exposed himself.”

Martinez said evidence was further bolstered by items found during a search of the former chief’s home in Anaheim Hills. Orange County prosecutors have filed an indecent exposure charge, and the Orange County Superior Court website lists him as a fugitive.

Martinez said the investigation began when a woman contacted Anaheim police to report that she had found a photograph of a man’s genitals on the ground near a running trail at Oak Canyon Road in east Anaheim.

The woman told investigators she had previously seen similar photographs of male and female genitalia while running on the trail. On Thanksgiving morning, the woman said she was on the hiking trail and a man walked passed her and exposed himself and kept walking with his pants lowered to his knees, Martinez said.

Early on Nov. 29, three women exercising at an Anaheim Hills park returned to their cars and found photographs of male genitalia on their windshields.

richard.winton@latimes.com