Indecent Exposure and Aggravated Indecent Exposure Cases in Michigan

By Jeffrey Randa

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Indecent Exposure and Aggravated Indecent Exposure

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Published on Oct 08, 2025

In our role as Michigan criminal defense lawyers, we handle a lot of indecent exposure cases in the Greater-Detroit area. While there are a lot of elements to these cases that can essentially be examined to death, the bottom line is that a person charged with either indecent exposure or aggravated indecent exposure needs a lawyer who can produce the best (as in most lenient) possible results. In this article, we’ll see how to do that.

There are 2 different kinds of “indecent exposure” charges: regular, or simple indecent exposure, and “aggravated indecent exposure.” Simple indecent exposure is a misdemeanor offense, while aggravated indecent exposure is treated as a felony offense.

We’ll get into the specifics of each later, but it’s important to note that sometimes, the term “indecent exposure” is broadly used when speaking of either offense. In this piece, we’ll sometimes distinguish each specific offense from the other, while at other times, we’ll simply use the term “IE” when describing them as a group.

Also, we’re going to proceed on the assumption that any reader dealing with an IE charge is male. Our firm has handled countless indecent and aggravated indecent exposure charges over the decades, and with only one – and therefore very notable exception – they have ALL been for men. That one odd case involved a young woman attending a music festival who had dressed in short-shorts that some ticket-happy police officer thought were just too short.

As it turned out, we quickly got that entire case dismissed outright.

If the reader is facing an IE charge, he likely already has a kind of foreboding sense of how some people can look at this kind of offense as “weird” or “perverted.” As Michigan Criminal attorneys who regularly handle these cases, we understand that, as well. People often ask why we handle these cases at all, much less why we have what is essentially a concentration in them.

The simple answer is that the vast majority of the people we represent in IE cases are NOT weird or perverted. Oftentimes, they just get over-stressed or frustrated and “act out.”

Some people blow off steam by punching a wall (or, worse yet, a person). Some go out and getting really drunk (and often doing something stupid thereafter). Others blow all their money at the casino.

Still others, for reasons they often can’t clearly explain, do something (admittedly stupid) that results in an IE charge.

In an indecent or aggravate indecent exposure case, the biggest worry of the court system (and the prosecutor) is that an IE defendant may be a risk to “progress” from smaller things, like exposure incidents, to more serious sexual offenses. Although only a small minority of IE offenders ever do progress to more serious (as in assaultive) sex crimes, it’s also true that a lot of the guys who do commit those more serious criminal sexual conduct offenses started out smaller, by doing things like exposing themselves.

Because of the large number of IE cases our firm handles, we have seen it happen often enough.

This may not be fun stuff to talk about, but it is reality, and these are the kinds of things that a Michigan criminal attorney needs to help the client understand about his IE charge.

Accordingly, given that the court will be concerned about progression, one of our first priorities is to calms those fears and make clear that our client does NOT present with any kind of appreciable risk to do that.

In some case, in order to accomplish that, we’ll have our client privately evaluated by one of the foremost counselors in the field, and we’ll use that evaluation to drive a better outcome in his case, both in our negotiations with the prosecutor and in our arguments to the Judge.

This is important stuff. Beyond just being a lawyer, I have also completed a formal, post-graduate program of addiction studies, a sub-field in the larger realm of psychology. My undergraduate degree is in psychology, and that was followed by my law degree. My further studies in the field of psychology at the post-graduate level is a huge benefit when it comes to understanding (and, even more important, explaining) that most men who find themselves facing an IE charge are not risky sexual predators.

Instead of looking for some complicated explanation, it’s critical to make sure everyone remembers that most IE cases just “happen,” and are NOT the result of some underlying mental health problem. That’s a really important fact that can be easily overlooked, but one that my team and I can’t allow to be passed over.

As Michigan criminal defense lawyers, my team and I must make sure we demonstrate to the court that our client is not any kind of danger, and that his indecent exposure or aggravated indecent exposure incident was truly a one-off, and not the result of some underlying sexual deviancy or sexually predatory inclination that will “progress.”

Before we plow ahead any further, let’s look at the legal definition of “indecent exposure” and “aggravated indecent exposure” as it’s written in the actual law:

(1) A person shall not knowingly make any open or indecent exposure of his or her person or of the person of another.

(2) A person who violates subsection (1) is guilty of a crime, as follows:

(a) Except as provided in subdivision (b) or (c), the person is guilty of a misdemeanor punishable by imprisonment for not more than 1 year, or a fine of not more than $1,000.00, or both.

(b) If the person was fondling his or her genitals, pubic area, buttocks, or, if the person is female, breasts, while violating subsection (1), the person is guilty of a misdemeanor punishable by imprisonment for not more than 2 years or a fine of not more than $2,000.00, or both.

(c) If the person was at the time of the violation a sexually delinquent person, the violation is punishable by imprisonment for an indeterminate term, the minimum of which is 1 day and the maximum of which is life.

(3) A mother’s breastfeeding of a child or expressing breast milk does not constitute indecent or obscene conduct under subsection (1) regardless of whether or not her areola or nipple is visible during or incidental to the breastfeeding or expressing of breast milk.

Note that what bumps up regular indecent exposure to aggravated indecent exposure is that aggravated requires fondling. Simply touching one’s genitals is usually enough to satisfy that.

Early in this piece, I stated that “aggravated indecent exposure is treated as a felony offense.” The reader will note that, within the written law, it is called a “misdemeanor,” but that’s actually a misnomer, because in Michigan, a misdemeanor is an offense punishable by a jail term of no more than 1 year, and a felony is an offense punishable by a year or more in prison.

In a quirk of the law, there are a few hybrid  criminal charges either called a “high court misdemeanor,” a “2-year felony,” or a “2-year misdemeanor.” These offenses are treated as and follow the same criminal process as any other felony.

Aggravated indecent exposure is one of them.

This is very different that how simple indecent exposure charges are treated: Those follow misdemeanor criminal procedure.

I’ll spare the reader the rest of what would otherwise become a long law-school lecture here, and just fast forward to the conclusion: Aggravated indecent exposure is treated like any and every other felony charge.

Our job, as criminal defense lawyers, is to know how to work with – and to work around – the applicable criminal procedure in such a way as to bring about the most lenient result for our clients.

My team and I know exactly how to do that, in no small part because we’re very good at what we do, and, that, in turn, is in no small part due to our extensive experience handling indecent exposure and aggravated indecent exposure charges.

Often, when we get a call from someone facing an IE charge, we can jump in and ask him things like, “Did this happen at a park, as part of some sting operation?”, or, “Did this happen in a parking lot?”

These callers are often surprised that we know these thing, but that’s the value of our more than 3 decades of experience.

Of course, everyone facing a criminal charge is worried about jail. Nobody wants to go to jail, and that’s probably even more true for someone charged with an indecent exposure offense. As of this writing, I can honestly say that out of the many IE charges my team and I have handled, we have NEVER had a client go to jail.

We’re not about to start, either.

Moreover, we make sure that each client gets the very best and most lenient sentence possible.

At the end of the day, success in an indecent exposure or aggravated indecent exposure charge is best measure by what does NOT happen to you. That’s the gold standard that my team and I live by.

No lawyer can do more, and we will never do less.

If you are facing any kind of IE charge and looking for a lawyer, be a smart consumer and read around. Pay attention to how different lawyers explain the law and the legal process, and how they explain their various approaches to it.

When you’ve done enough of that, start checking around. You can learn a lot by actually talking to a live person. That’s exactly what you’ll get when you call our office.

If your case is pending anywhere in Greater-Detroit area (meaning anywhere in Wayne, Oakland, Macomb, or the surrounding counties), give us a ring. All of our consultations are free, confidential, and done over the phone, right when you call. My team and I are very friendly people who will be glad to answer your questions, explain things, and even compare notes with anything some other lawyer has told you.

We can be reached Monday through Friday, from 8:30 a.m. until 5:00 p.m. at either 586-465-1980 or any of the other phone numbers on this blog or our website.

Of course, you can reach us anytime using the contact form.