SEATTLE -- Seattle's new $169 million downtown library has attracted national attention for its design and beauty.

It has also attracted perverts, mental patients, and other security problems.

KIRO Team 7 Investigative Reporter Chris Halsne has an exclusive look inside the Central Library.

Getting expelled from this library is no easy task, but hundreds of patrons have already accomplished it. Many are kicked out for repeatedly getting drunk or sleeping here, but KIRO Team 7 Investigators also discovered some more serious matters, like threats, sexual misconduct and assaults.

Quiet readers at the new downtown library have little choice but to put up with certain things: The smell of alcohol, people sleeping on the new furniture, and dozens of men watching porn movies at public computer terminals.

Marlene Lahaze comes to the library five or six times a week. She's not scared, but sees plenty of inappropriate behavior, telling us, "It's pretty much the who's who of mental health in there. I worry that pedophiles are hanging there, just waiting. There are a lot of teenagers there by themselves. I worry about that."

It turns out other visitors to this new glass and metal architectural wonder are feeling "creeped out," too, and for sound reasons.

KIRO Team 7 Investigators obtained an internal library database. It documents what security guards, who roam 11 floors here looking for rules violators, see on a daily basis.

Records show 491 "code of conduct violations" serious enough to get a patron kicked out. Since June of 2004, documents show: 22 incidents of sexual misconduct or public nudity; 60 threats of violence, including loud, racially-motivated or obscene rants; 76 cases of harassment, disruptive behavior, leering, stalking. Guards documented seven cases of physical assault and at least 13 illegal drug incidents.

Seattle Library administrative services director Marilynne Gardner says 2.5 million people have visited Central so far. Fewer than 500 incidents of disciplinary misconduct proves to her this place is safe and secure.

"We get visitors from all over the world. Plus, we're an urban environment with a lot of transition in terms of people working and living downtown. To your question, 'Why would we have more issues?' Well, we have more people. A diversity of people coming to the central library," Gardner said.

Some problems documented in internal library reports are too graphic to share.

Patrons have repeatedly been expelled for sexually inappropriate behavior. In just one afternoon near the fifth floor computer terminals, we observed several men acting out things you wouldn't want your children to see. Gardner defends the library security saying, "In any public place, even at the grocery store, we encourage parents to stay with their children, especially young children."

Other reports we uncovered include someone urinating on the floor, multiple thefts, vandalisms, even a patron carrying a concealed weapon.

Diane Young is resigned to the fact that checking out her favorite book comes with an uncomfortable price.

"I stay away from the teen section. A bunch of the homeless guys sit there and sleep and watch people. I don't sit alone in any of the single tables. They sometimes have creepy guys coming up to those areas and, personally, I don't want to keep telling people to stay away from me," Young said.

For comparison, KIRO Team 7 Investigators researched security incidents at 56 other Seattle and King County library branches. We uncovered about 700 cases of bad behavior and a few crimes. Although those branches serve six times the number of people, the Central Library alone had nearly as many problems as the rest combined.

Library staff say they haven't had many complaints from the public, but almost everyone we spoke with outside the building, like Melissa Letz, had concerns.

"I've had guys take my computer screen, move it over and look at what was on there, and the kind of people you don't really want to see in the library."

Terry Marble adds, "There is a lot of theft going on in there. You tell security and they don't do anything about it."

There are certain incidents that go on inside that you might consider a crime, but KIRO Team 7 Investigators checked and Seattle police aren't called very often to make that official determination. So, instead of going to jail, someone may threaten to kill a librarian or do drugs at a book table and the city will impose it's own kind of justice. Library patrons can loose their privileges for up to a year.

So you can see for yourself what's going on at your local library, we've created a database of all incidents in King County and Seattle that either got patrons expelled or caused police to respond.