Official from Maine child welfare group accused of exposing himself to girls

LINCOLN, Neb. – Police say an associate director of a national child welfare organization has been charged with exposing himself to some teenage girls at a Nebraska hotel when he came out of his room in only a T-shirt and yelled at them for being too loud.

Officer Katie Flood said Steven Preister, 68, of Washington, D.C., was briefly jailed after confronting four girls ages 14 and 15 as they came out of a stairwell at the Cornhusker Marriott in Lincoln between 9:30 p.m. and 10 p.m. Monday. The girls told officers that Preister yelled at them, then followed them to their room and tried to stop them from closing their door. He appeared to be intoxicated, the girls said.

The girls were staying at the hotel while attending a leadership conference. Flood said two adult chaperons also saw what happened.

According to online court records, Preister has already pleaded not guilty to misdemeanor charges of public nudity and disturbing the peace. He did not immediately respond to a message Wednesday from The Associated Press.

Preister is associate director of the National Child Welfare Resource Center for Organizational Improvement, which is based in Portland, Maine and affiliated with the University of Southern Maine.

He was in Lincoln to provide technical help to the Nebraska Health and Human Services Department, said agency spokeswoman Kathie Osterman.