Man Faces Life in Prison for Flashing a Girl in Fountain Valley 20 Years Ago

A 62-year-old man was convicted today of exposing himself to the 11-year-old daughter of a colleague in a case that took two decades to go before a jury because the defendant left the country before his arrest.

Jurors deliberated for about a day and a half before convicting Luther Pete Haynes of child annoyance. Prosecutors filed the felony count against him because he has two prior convictions for lewd acts on victims younger than 14, according to Deputy District Attorney Kristin Bracic.

Orange County Superior Court Judge W. Michael Hayes denied several motions to toss the case based on a claim that the defendant’s rights to a speedy trial were violated, Bracic said.

Haynes, scheduled to be sentenced April 24, faces 25 years to life in prison.

Haynes exposed himself to the girl -- whose father worked with him at a San Clemente-based paleontology firm -- while taking photos of her in Fountain Valley on Jan. 14, 1995, Bracic said.

Haynes, who married a Filipino woman when she was 18, had homes in the Philippines and the U.S. and traveled back and forth between the two, Bracic said.

“He knew police were looking for him and went to the Philippines (in 1995) and didn’t come back,” Bracic said.

Haynes contended he did not know authorities were looking for him.

How he ended up back in the U.S. to face charges last August is “a mystery,” Bracic said. “He says U.S. marshals showed up in the middle of the night and arrested him,” but there are no records of an extradition, she said.

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