A Falmouth man accused of throwing semen at a woman in Portland is denying the allegations, according to his attorney.

Portland police issued Theo Orestis, 22, a summons for simple assault on July 22, alleging he threw a substance at a woman on Forest Avenue, near the city’s Back Cove area.

In videos on social media, the woman said she believes it was semen. Police declined on Wednesday to discuss the investigation, which remains pending, and the Cumberland County District Attorney’s Office said it is still reviewing whether it will charge Orestis.

Orestis had been working all day and was in the Back Cove area to get pizza when the woman confronted him, his attorney, Michael Whipple, said in an interview Monday. He said Orestis, an electrician, immediately met with police when they arrived at his father’s home and denied the allegations. His client went as far as to complete a privately arranged polygraph exam over the weekend, which Whipple said his client passed.

“Teddy was surprised, shocked and in full denial,” Whipple said. “Like, this did not happen.”

A police report for the incident was not publicly available Wednesday.

The incident was reported within days of a larger report by the Guardian about a rise in incidents where men are exposing themselves to women and assaulting them with bodily fluids at Dollar Tree stores.

In a video posted on Instagram, the woman recounted the incident and said she asked the man “what did you just throw at me?” She said she had been waiting to cross the street at a busy intersection when she noticed a man was standing too close.

“And then all of a sudden, I see a weird motion behind me and I feel something very wet fall on the back of my leg, and he walked away,” she said. When she wiped her hand on the back of her leg, she said she “immediately realized it was semen” and ran after the man, but he didn’t stop for her. She said she took pictures of the man’s face and truck for police.

The woman said there was a witness who also spoke with police, and that a detective later told her they were collecting videos of the incident.

The Portland Press Herald was unable to reach the woman and is not naming her because of the nature of the allegations.

Whipple said that when the woman confronted his client, he was wearing his work shirt, “without ever trying to conceal his identity in any way.”

“Here’s a guy that’s at work all day, trying to get a slice of pizza, in a recognizable shirt with the company logo on it,” Whipple said. “If you’re trying to do a pretty nefarious act, where you wouldn’t want to be discovered … that makes zero sense.”

Orestis offered police a DNA sample and fingerprints but, as of Wednesday, they hadn’t collected anything, Whipple said. He said that Orestis also completed a privately arranged polygraph exam on Sunday.

In a statement confirming the results of that exam, polygrapher and private investigator Mark Teceno wrote that he determined Orestis “was likely truthful when he denied throwing any liquid at or on a woman during the incident on Forest Avenue in Portland that has received significant public attention.”

“Could it have been a seagull? Could it have been something else?” Whipple said. “We’re going to get to the bottom of that, in terms of tracking down all the cameras in the area.”

In the first video posted last week, the woman said police did not independently collect evidence of the alleged semen. In another video, she showed herself wearing blue gloves and picking up a rag on a sidewalk, which she said she had used to wipe her leg. She then swabbed a wet spot on the sidewalk, saying that a witness encouraged her to collect evidence herself.

In a third video, she said a detective called and arranged to pick up what she had collected.

District Attorney Jacqueline Sartoris said her office is still receiving information from police and deciding whether to charge the man accused. She said prosecutors are open to evidence from the defendant, but that she generally has doubts about polygraphs, which are often not admissible in court due to accuracy concerns.

Online, the woman has complained that the case should be charged as a sexual assault. Sartoris said the alleged conduct doesn’t fit Maine’s current definition of a “sexual act,” which would be necessary for a gross sexual assault charge.

Regardless of whether this specific incident is charged, Sartoris said she has been moved by the public’s concern and has seen reporting about similar alleged incidents in other states, including a recent piece in the Guardian about men exposing themselves at Dollar Tree stores and assaulting women with bodily fluids.

Sartoris said she has reached out to some lawmakers, requesting that they consider expanding Maine’s laws.