SEATTLE, May 4 (UPI) -- An attorney has been given more time before a trial is set for his client, a man charged with sticking his face in women's buttocks in a Seattle park.
A hearing to set a trial date for Duane Starkenburg, 46, was to have been held Tuesday. It was pushed back to July 5 , however, after his lawyer asked for the delay, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer reported.
Starkenburg, who is free on $175,000 bail, says he's innocent of the two counts of indecent liberties and one count of attempted indecent liberties, the online newspaper said.
He has told reporters he had been at the park but called his situation a serious misunderstanding.
"Yeah, I do watch women run," he told the reporters. "They're runnin' around half-naked."
On Aug. 11, a woman was running with her dog when a man came up behind her and fell into her, planting his face in her rear end. Police said the woman reported feeling violated.
On Dec. 15 when another woman, again running with a dog, said a man approached her and asked if he could pat her dog. As she was running later, the man positioned himself behind her and supposedly fell into her, sliding his hands down her legs and grabbing her ankles.
"His nose went up in my butt," she told police.
In late January, a 27-year-old woman told police she was grabbed from behind while running. She said she broke free and the man fled.
Starkenburg was arrested nearby and police say the victim identified him as her attacker.
Police Detective Leslie Smith said Starkenburg allegedly told them "he goes to the park every day to watch women run as he likes to watch them 'jiggle and bounce.'"
"It's not like I drag the women into the bushes and rape them," Starkenburg allegedly told police.
