The ‘Sunday Bandit’ is in jail again. This time he’s charged with felony indecent exposure

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REXBURG — He was caught on camera masturbating in a neighbor’s home, admitted to stealing a teenager’s clothes and has been charged multiple times for unlawful entry.

Now Cody Polatis is back in the Madison County Jail on $100,000 bail after being arrested for felony indecent exposure.

Polatis, 26, was arraigned Wednesday after an incident Monday afternoon in the Warm Slough boat area of Madison County. Sheriff deputies received a call from a concerned mother who said Polatis exposed himself to three young girls. A deputy drove to the area and spoke with the woman.

“She told me they had been at the river and she was up at her vehicle cleaning up, getting ready to leave, when the girls came and told her that a man had shown them his ‘private parts and no-no spots,'” a probable cause statement says. “(The mother) said she confronted the man when he came up the ramp about exposing himself to the girls. … he denied having done anything and left in his truck.”

The deputy interviewed each of the girls separately and their stories were similar. They said they were catching frogs in the river and saw a man turn around with genitals exposed.

“(One girl) told me she was approximately 2 to 3 feet from the man when he turned around and had a frog in his hands and asked her if she wanted a frog in his hands while his penis was out of his shorts,” the deputy wrote in his report.

The concerned mother described the man’s license plate and pickup truck information, which was registered to Polatis. Other deputies found the truck at a different location and approached Polatis. Court documents say the deputy near the truck sent a picture to the deputy at the river, who showed the image to the girls, and all of them said it was the man who had exposed himself.

“(The deputies) interviewed Cody and told me he was very vague about what had occurred and told them, ‘I may have been going to the bathroom,'” the probable cause statement says. A deputy noticed a pornographic magazine on the center console of Polatis’ truck and investigators noted that a bathroom was 30 to 50 feet from where his truck was parked at the boat ramp.

Polatis was booked into jail Tuesday and appeared before Judge David Hunt for a video arraignment. He is scheduled for a preliminary hearing on July 28.

‘The Sunday Bandit’

EastIdahoNews.com first began reporting on Polatis five years ago. Neighbors in his tightknit Salem community gave him the nickname of “Sunday Bandit” after he was caught several times breaking into homes while they were at church.

One neighbor set up a hidden camera in his daughter’s bedroom that caught Polatis masturbating and stealing the girl’s clothes. The neighbor believed Polatis had broken in at least seven times and stolen $1,300 worth of women’s clothing.

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Polatis was charged with burglary, stalking and public display of offensive sexual material but, in a plea agreement with the Fremont County Prosecutor’s Office, the burglary charge was reduced to a misdemeanor unlawful entry charge and the public display of sexual material charge was dropped.

Other incidents involving Polatis include:

• 2014: A trespassing charge after Polatis was found in the Rexburg Kmart dressing room after hours with women’s clothing. He pleaded guilty and was ordered to undergo a psychosexual evaluation.
• 2016: An unlawful entry and probation violation charge after a teenage girl, home sick from church, found Polatis in her Salem home. On a voluntary admission form, he wrote, “I went in and intended to masturbate and leave. I did not intend on taking anything.”
• 2016: Polatis is arrested for indecent exposure after he admitted to masturbating and looking at pornography outside a Rexburg surgical center. Officers discovered women’s underwear in the vehicle, and workers said he had used their internet in the past.
• 2018: A woman returns from church and discovers Polatis’ car parked outside her Salem home. Her daughter’s bed is disheveled and Polatis tells her “his animals had recently died, and he came to her house to see her animals.” He is charged with misdemeanor unlawful entry and violating probation. Polatis is sentenced to serve time in jail.
• 2019: Polatis pleads guilty to misdemeanor petty theft. He is ordered to serve up to a year in jail.

Polatis has been booked in the Madison County Jail several times over the years but has never been sentenced on a felony charge, which could result in prison time. He is scheduled for a preliminary hearing on the felony indecent exposure charge on July 28.