A registered sex offender drove to Tyler Junior College, walked into Wise Auditorium, allegedly pulled down his pants and “performed disgusting acts” in public, officials report.

Russel Harty, 32, was arrested on Oct. 27 in Wise Auditorium for indecent exposure after a student told campus police there was a man in front of the bathroom doing “inappropriate sexual things,” according to TJC police reports.

He is currently being held in the Smith County Jail on a parole violation.

According to various records, including indictments in Gregg County, arrest records and information from the Department of Criminal Justice, Harty and his twin brother, Randal, have a history of sexual offenses.

Russel Harty had been a TJC student in 2003, prior to going to prison, but was not currently registered as a student at TJC on Oct. 27 when police arrived on scene.

When he saw the officer, he pulled up his pants, ran into the auditorium and tried to hide between the seats.

His criminal record is extensive.

Russel was caught using a mirror to look into a women’s dressing room at a Target in Tyler and convicted of disorderly conduct in 2003.

Then in 2004, Russel was convicted of indecency with a child when he exposed himself to a 13-year-old girl and her mother in the parking lot of Old Navy, off Loop 281 in Longview. Police reports state Russel fondled himself in the car in front of the mother and daughter.

He was arrested again three months later after he was caught looking at a 15-year-old girl in the dressing room of Cato’s off Loop 281 in Longview.

Two days later on April 14, Russel was banned from Spring Hill Independent School District campuses when officials found one of the Harty brothers on campus near the junior high.

The principal could not identify which Harty brother had been on campus and banned both, notifying them via phone.

Russel was arrested and confined in the Gregg County Jail in April 2004 for indecency with a child but later was released on $25,000 bond.

He went to trial at the end of June 2004, pleading guilty to charges of indecency with a child by exposure, a third-degree felony. He was sentenced to a 10-year probated sentence, including mandatory counseling for sex offenders and a $5,000 fine. His probation was revoked in 2006 after Russel confessed to committing sexual acts on himself in Longview Mall parking lots while watching young girls. He was given a 10-year prison term because it was a third-degree felony.

Russel, a registered sex offender, was released on probation on May 23. He’s now confined in the Smith County Jail after exposing himself on the TJC campus in October.

Randal Harty previously was arrested for indecent exposure on the TJC campus in October 2001. 

He too is a registered sex offender with crimes including possession of child pornography and exposure to a minor, according to the DPS Sexual Offenders Registry.

Randal was a registered TJC student in 2001, and according to TJC Campus Safety, both brothers have a criminal trespass order against them and cannot return to campus.

In 2010, TJC implemented many new security measures designed to increase safety for students, employees and visitors.

Those measures included a lanyard policy that requires all students and employees to wear a lanyard that is clearly visible with their ID.

“The trouble we had at TJC with many things was not our students, it was people coming on to campus causing problems,” said Thomas Johnson, executive director of Security and Public Services. “So how do you determine who’s supposed to be (on campus) and who’s not? That’s when we went to the lanyard ID, and it made it very easy.”

The IDs must have the current semester’s sticker to be valid.

“The lanyard policy allows us to be proactive,” said Randy Melton, the chief of campus police. “(Lanyards) allow us to identify who belongs here and who doesn’t belong here.”

People caught on campus without ID, and who have no educational purpose, are given a criminal trespass warning and the next time they will be arrested and taken to jail.

The campus also offers a “U-Tip” program that allows anyone to send anonymous text messages that tip the campus police of any suspicious activity. Anyone can send a message with “tjctip” at the beginning of the message to 79516 to notify police.