Former contra gunrunner faces exposure charge Hasenfus in limelight again on accusation of exposing himself in busy parking lot By Lisa Sink of the Journal Sentinel staff Last Updated: Sept. 6, 2000 The celebrity he gained through run-ins with the Sandinistas and later the U.S. government a distant memory, former gunrunner Eugene Hasenfus now faces notoriety of another kind. The former Marinette Marine has been charged with exposing himself in a Kmart parking lot, the latest in a series of problems - from financial woes to divorce - that have dogged him in recent years. He was front page news in 1986 when he found himself at the center of the Iran-contra scandal after his plane was shot down by Nicaragua's Sandinistas. But as of late, Hasenfus has tried to keep a low profile. The Waukesha County assistant district attorney who wrote the criminal complaint confessed that he didn't know who Hasenfus was until informed by a reporter. Hasenfus, 59, now living in Milwaukee, was charged in Waukesha County Circuit Court with lewd and lascivious behavior on accusations of masturbating inside his pickup truck July 10 in a Kmart parking lot in the Town of Brookfield. A shopper returning to her car told police she saw a man exposing himself in his pickup, the complaint says. Hasenfus later told police that he stuck a construction-type glove over his license plate to hide it in case someone caught him, the complaint says. "I did this because I wanted to stay anonymous," Hasenfus wrote in his statement to police. But the shopper removed the glove and jotted down Hasenfus' plate number before he drove off, the complaint says. Hasenfus told police he went to the Kmart at 18200 W. Blue Mound Road about 11 a.m. and parked in a crowded area of the lot and masturbated, the complaint says. "The defendant indicated that he knows that his conduct was not appropriate, and he is sorry for it," the complaint says. "The defendant denies ever doing this type of conduct in other parking lots." If convicted of the misdemeanor, he would face a maximum penalty of nine months in jail. Hasenfus moved from obscurity to the limelight when he was shot down in Nicaragua and captured by the Sandinistas in October 1986. His fellow crewmen died in the crash. Hasenfus spent 73 days in a Nicaraguan jail after the U.S. government denied any knowledge he was running guns to the contras. The incident prompted a lengthy investigation into the involvement of the Reagan administration in a CIA-directed operation to arm the contra rebels with money obtained by secret U.S. arms sales to Iran. Many compared Iran-contra to the Watergate scandal that brought down Richard Nixon. Fourteen years later, the name Gene Hasenfus initially meant nothing to Assistant District Attorney Pablo Galaviz. Likewise, the 23-year-old police officer who took Hasenfus' statement also wasn't aware of his past. "I don't think she was aware of the connection," said Town of Brookfield police Lt. David Vischulis. "I personally didn't recognize the name until someone called on it this morning. That's a long time ago." Hasenfus did not return a call seeking comment. After his release from prison, Hasenfus returned to Marinette broke and bitter. He made the news last year for his role as an ironworker on the Miller Park project, but said at the time he only wanted to talk about construction, not contras. "I don't care to talk about myself per se, or why I'm here, the Gene Hasenfus story - none of that (expletive)," he said. A stadium board official said Wednesday that Hasenfus no longer worked on Miller Park but was unable to determine when he left the project. Hasenfus was never able to cash in on his involvement in the Iran-contra scandal. A year after his capture, he tried to court Hollywood executives into making a movie about his experience but nothing materialized. In 1996, the Clinton administration rejected his claim for $800,000 for injuries he said he suffered in the Nicaraguan plane crash. Hasenfus' wife filed for divorce in December 1998, and it was granted earlier this year. He has had minor scrapes with the law, including a September 1998 accident in which he turned left in front of a motorcycle and severely injured the female rider, who has since sued him. In 1996, he was arrested on charges of drunken driving, battery to a law enforcement officer, disorderly conduct, resisting and battery. He was convicted of drunken driving and misdemeanor battery and placed on probation for two years, state records show. Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel on Sept. 7, 2000 <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/">www.ctrl.org</A> DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are unwelcomed. Substance—not soap-boxing—please! 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