Barnstable police charged Edward Panek, 58, of Oak Bluffs, with open and gross lewdness for exposing himself to people at a public beach parking lot in Hyannis Saturday morning.

Just before 11 am on Saturday morning, the Barnstable Police Department alleges in its report of the event, a concerned citizen flagged down an officer in a marked police cruiser and reported that a man in a blue Nissan at the Kalmus Beach parking lot was “exposing his genitals to him and to other people in the parking lot.”

The responding officer stopped Mr. Panek’s car as it headed toward the lot’s exit. He reported detecting  a “faint smell of alcohol” coming from inside the car.

Inspecting more closely, the officer saw that Mr. Panek was wearing “what appeared to be a makeshift skirt that was made out of a pair of pants and a zip-up windbreaker with no shirt underneath. Mr. Panek was not wearing any underwear and his genitals were exposed from the driver’s seat.”  

Mr. Panek denied exposing himself and told the officer he wore his unconventional choice of attire because he was hot.

According to the report, it was 43 degrees at the time of the arrest.

Mr. Panek denied he had been drinking, but failed three field sobriety tests. A chemical test showed his blood alcohol content measured 0.14 percent. A charge of operating under the influence was added.

He pled not guilty in Barnstable District Court Monday, and was released on his own recognizance.

This is the second time Mr. Panek has been arrested for exposing himself in the past five months.  

In August, he was arrested in Florida after exposing himself to a male undercover Polk County Sheriff’s Office detective at Gator Creek Preserve in Lakeland. According to the arrest report, he had exposed his genitals and buttocks to two officers by the time of his arrest. The arrest was the result of an undercover investigation, spurred by “reports of lewd activity occurring in the public’s plain view.” Three other men were arrested in the subsequent investigation, according to television station WWSB. Mr. Panek was charged with one count of indecent exposure and was also banned from trespassing at any parks in the county. The case is pending, according to documents on the Polk County Clerk’s office website.

Until his retirement, Mr. Panek was the longtime Massachusetts Department of Transportation (MassDOT) Island superintendent. He recently came out of retirement temporarily following the resignation of Superintendent Darren Welch.  

In an email to The Times on Tuesday, MassDOT spokeswoman Judi Riley wrote, “MassDot is aware of the recent arrest of Edward Panek. Mr. Panek was not a full-time employee with the agency, but was employed as a seasonal 120-day hire scheduled to work during the winter months. Mr. Panek’s employment with the agency has now been terminated.”

Mr. Panek could not be reached for comment.