BATON ROUGE - A man with a history of perverse criminal charges was arrested this week after he was allegedly seen fondling himself on LSU's campus.

Arrest records say the incident happened Sept. 23 in the parking lot outside Patrick Taylor Hall near the edge of campus. A person walking past said he saw James Cousins, 72, watching a female student from his truck. The passerby told police it appeared Cousins was masturbating while he watched the student enter the building.

The witness said he couldn't see Cousins genitalia but said he could tell what was happening based on the way he was moving his arm.

Campus police checked surveillance video and were able to spot the truck, which was seen sitting in the parking lot for about nine minutes. 

Once the officers identified Cousins as the owner of the truck, it was learned he'd been arrested on several obscenity charges dating back to 1981, including multiple incidents in the same parking lot.

When confronted by investigators on Oct. 1, Cousins admitted to watching women from the parking lot but denied the accusations that he fondled himself in his truck. Cousins told police that watching women was "the only thing he has left" and claimed he has a heart condition that prevented him from masturbating.

He further explained to police that he likes to sit and listen to music in his truck and that someone may have mistaken him playing "air drums" on his knees as an obscene act from afar.

Cousins was booked Friday morning on a charge of obscenity.