By Peter Berton
HAMILTON, Ohio – Call it a fetish: Edwin Tobergta just can’t seem to keep his body parts to himself in the presence of seductive inflatable toys. That might not seem so bizarre — after all, blow-up dolls are a novelty staple — except for one thing: Tobergta’s tastes run to pool rafts.
Pink ones.
In other people’s pools.
Tobergta’s most recent arrest occurred about 8 a.m. Wednesday, after police received a report about a naked man having sex with a pink pool raft on Ohio State Route 4. He was charged with felony public indecency.
In November 2013, Tobergta, 35, received an 11-month jail sentence after pleading guilty to public indecency charges in a similar case. Released in May 2014, he was told to stay away from tempting inflatables during five years of supervised release.
At a sentencing hearing in November, Tobergta pleaded for treatment instead of incarceration.
“I do want to apologize for my actions,” he told Butler County Judge Charles Pater. “I’m sorry. I do deal with mental issues, and if the court would give me this chance for this program, sir, I would give it 100 percent. I’m ready to get my life together and quit all this nonsense.”
The “nonsense” to which Tobergta referred: Two previous convictions for felonious public indecency with pink pool rafts in 2008 and 2011.
Tobergta remains in custody in the Butler County Jail in lieu of $35,000 bond — securely away from any sources of inflatable inspiration. A preliminary hearing is set for June 18.
