From staff reports

news@joplinglobe.com

MIAMI, Okla. — A former Miami police officer will be required to register as a sex offender after pleading no contest to a charge of indecent exposure, according to the Ottawa County court clerk’s office.

James Lloyd Gambill Jr., 49, of Miami, was granted a five-year suspended sentence as part of his plea last week. He will have to register as a sex offender, pay almost $1,940 in fines and court costs, and serve five years of probation, according to the clerk’s office. Indecent exposure is a felony under Oklahoma law.

Gambill was a 15-year veteran of the Miami Police Department and had attained the rank of lieutenant before he resigned in July 2007 in the wake of the indecent-exposure charge.

Gambill was on duty and in his patrol car when he pulled up early the morning of June 4, 2007, in front of Love’s Convenience Store in Miami, according to an arrest affidavit.

According to the affidavit, Gambill asked a clerk to come over to his police car. When she did, she reportedly saw that Gambill’s shirt was unbuttoned, and that he was not wearing any pants.

Gambill reportedly returned the next day and apologized to the woman, saying “he was sorry that things got out of hand,” according to the affidavit.

Two days later, Gambill reportedly went into the store and asked the woman if “she would like to see him naked.” Gambill left the store after being rebuffed.

On June 24, the woman, who had gone to authorities and was wearing a recording device, met Gambill away from the store and asked him about coming to the store and being naked.

Authorities said Gambill replied, “I told you I was going to come back up there naked.”

Gambill also reportedly said during the taped conversation that he “drove around without his pants on.”

The woman told Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation agents that Gambill had made sexual remarks to her on several occasions.