There are a lot of tools out there to manage stress. Allegedly masturbating within view of a preschool is not the best one, as one Republican candidate in Arizona’s largest county found out this month.
Randy Gene Kaufman was given a citation on October 4 for doing just that, according to a probable cause affidavit published by Law and Crime earlier this week. When a Maricopa Community Colleges Police Department officer asked him why he would masturbate in his truck in public, Kaufman responded: “I’m just really stressed out. I have a lot of things going on.”
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Kaufman, a retired prison supervisor, also happens to be a Republican candidate for the Maricopa County Community College District’s governing board. Kaufman suspended his campaign this week, according to multiple reports, but as it’s too late for the GOP to replace him with another candidate, he’ll still be on the ballot in November.
Reached for comment about Kaufman’s case, the Republican Party of Arizona told VICE News that the party “respects due process and the Consitution [sic].”
“Every American citizen has the right to fair treatment throughout the judicial system,” the party said in a statement. “We support Mr. Kaufman’s decision to suspend his campaign.”
The Maricopa County Republican Committee told VICE News in a statement that “our foremost concern is the safety and protection of the students in Maricopa County. Maricopa County Republican Committee supports Mr. Kaufman’s decision to suspend his campaign.”
Kaufman was approached by the cop shortly after 4 p.m. on Oct. 4, when he was on the campus of a lifelong learning center in Surprise, Arizona. The responding officer reported that he “immediately became alarmed as I saw [Kaufman] had his pants down mid-thigh and was exposed showing his fully nude erect penis,” and that Kaufman was “manipulating his genitals in a masturbatory manor [sic].”
The report said that Kaufman’s truck was approximately 190 feet from a preschool next to the lifelong learning center, where “several preschool age children” were on the playground.
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In his conversation with the cop, Kaufman said he “didn’t notice” the proximity of the childcare center until the officer approached him.
“Don’t you see how alarming that is?” the officer asked him, according to the report. “That there are children nearby, people passing on bikes and in cars where they can see what you are doing?”
“I fucked up,” Kaufman responded.
Later, Kaufman told the officer he worked for the state Department of Corrections for nearly three decades. “I really fucked up; this is bad. You have no idea,” Kaufman said.
He then asked if he can “say something off the record,” according to the report, and went on to tell the cop that he was running for office and that he personally knows the president of the community college’s police union. (The MCC Police Officers’ Association did not immediately respond to a request for comment Thursday.)
An Arizona GOP spokesperson also clarified to VICE News in an email that Kaufman was not arrested for allegedly masturbating near a child care center. The probable cause affidavit says Kaufman was “contacted, arrested, and cited for Public Sexual Indecency,” but the same report also says that Kaufman was “cited in lieu of detention” and that he was released at the scene.
In an email, a Maricopa Community College spokesperson told VICE News that the way police handled Kaufman’s case was standard for someone in his situation.
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“Mr. Kaufman had met all of the MCCPD and the courts criteria on a class 1 misdemeanor for citation in lieu of detention,” including having a valid driver’s license and no outstanding warrants or probation, the spokesperson said.
In a now-deleted May Facebook automate your posting, Kaufman said he wanted “our children protected [from] the progressive left,” according to HuffPost. Kaufman said he was an enthusiastic support of former President Donald Trump, and opposed mask and vaccine mandates and abortion, according to now-removed Facebook posts reported by Law and Crime.
Kaufman also appears to have shut down his campaign page after he dropped out of the race Tuesday.
“A personal legal matter has recently arisen, and I need to step out of the race to focus on personal affairs,” Kaufman told KTVK Tuesday. “I am sincerely grateful for the supporters and friends I have gathered throughout the campaign.”
“I will never stop fighting to protect the United States Constitution and the values that make America the greatest country in the world.”
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