Police bust naked homeless man, again

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) - An Indianapolis man is behind bars tonight after police arrested him, not once, but twice this week for public indecency.

We found out these are not the first run-ins the homeless man has had with the law. 50-year-old Ricky Cumberland is being held without bond in the Marion County Jail after claims by residents in this near north side neighborhood that they've seen a little too much of the homeless man.

"I don't know much of his history, but I can tell you he's been camping out there pretty much every other day, we call and police shoo him away!" said Aaron Kohn.

Metro police arrested Cumberland twice this week: Sunday at an abandoned building in the 1600 block of Alabama where they say he was standing on the porch completely nude and yelling. And again on Tuesday behind a nearby house on east 17th Street where they say he was sitting and pleasuring himself. Both locations are right near Herron High School.

"I look at it, having worked in sex crimes, that he definitely could be a threat and it needs to be addressed" said IMPD Spokesman Lt. Jeff Duhamell

The two arrests this week in this area are just the latest in a string of arrests for Cumberland. We did some checking and found out that he has a criminal history dating all the way back to 1978. He’s been in and out of jail and been arrested almost two dozen times, mainly for sex offenses.

Cumberland is on the sex offender registry which raises serious questions.

Why hasn't he remained behind bars?

“Well, that's something we need to, we hope with the detectives and prosecutor look into a little closer with regards to his past behavior" Lt. Duhamell said.

For some near north side residents, visitors like Cumberland are to be expected.

“I've lived in this neighborhood for awhile. I've lived in a few different parts of it and I like it and a few bad apples aren't going to ruin it for me!" said Baumgartner.

We spoke with a Marion County criminal court judge who didn't want to comment about how to deal with repeat sex offenders like Cumberland. We also called the prosecutors office for comment and haven't heard back. Meanwhile, Cumberland has an initial court hearing set for 1:30 Thursday afternoon.