Maybe I’m missing something. Maybe there was some good reason why the Vero Beach Police Department didn’t charge Steven Michael Edwards with doing exactly what two witnesses said he did last week in a store on Ocean Drive – exposing himself in public, a first-degree misdemeanor punishable by up to a year in the county jail.
Maybe there’s some legal reason why the arresting officers opted to settle for a disorderly conduct charge, a second-degree misdemeanor with a maximum sentence of only 60 days behind bars.
“That’s up to the officer’s discretion,” VBPD spokesperson Ana Carden said. “The Sheriff’s Office already has added two felony charges, and the State Attorney’s Office can always increase or add to the charges as they review the case.”
Let’s hope that happens.
Let’s hope the SAO not only goes hard on the felonies – failure of a sex offender to register in person with the Sheriff’s Office, and failure of a sex offender to report to the Department of Motor Vehicles – but also adds the first-degree misdemeanor charge of exposure of sex organs in public.
We don’t want homeless, unemployed sex offenders, especially those who can’t stop themselves, to feel welcome in our community.
They can be dangerous.
In fact, the allegations contained in the VBPD’s arrest affidavit describing in detail Edwards’ disgusting antics at the Loggia home-and-garden store didn’t include his suspicious behavior on the beach.
Indian River County lifeguard Cameron Kirby said he had noticed Edwards at Humiston Park last week and had received complaints from beachgoers about the 57-year-old drifter – before the incident at Loggia.
“The day before, a group of girls from out of town said he was following them around and staring at them, making them feel uncomfortable,” Kirby said. “Later that day, I also noticed that a mother and her two teenaged daughters looked kind of perturbed as they were leaving the beach, so I asked them what was wrong. They made the same complaint.
“Even one of our other lifeguards had a problem with him,” he added. “The lifeguard was on the beach with his child and, apparently, this gentleman came up and touched the child.”
So the next day, when Kirby heard on his police radio that officers were looking for a man who fit Edwards’ description, he immediately called to tell them the suspect was at Humiston Park.
According to the arrest report, Edwards had left the store and walked across the street to Humiston Park, where he was stopped, questioned and apprehended by police.
He told the officers he was asked to leave the store for “no reason,” the report said, and that he had been “staying in Sebastian” for “about a month.”
When the officers asked Edwards if he was a sex offender, he told them he “did not know,” so they conducted a background check that revealed he was a registered sex offender in Virginia.
Sheriff’s Det. Donald Hart later confirmed the suspect’s status with the Virginia State Police, then obtained the necessary warrant for the felony charges.
Hart said there was no record of Edwards registering with the Indian River County Sheriff’s Office or applying to the DMV for a Florida driver’s license or identification card, though, in their conversation at the county jail, Edwards changed his story to say he had been here for only two weeks.
Hart wrote in his warrant affidavit that Edwards said he had arrived on a “Greyhound bus for a vacation” and was planning to stay with a friend, only to find out that his friend’s wife had become ill and he couldn’t stay in their home.
Hart said Edwards told him he has been living in the woods at U.S. 1 and Davies Street in Sebastian, and that he was “waiting for a check” before returning to Virginia.
Instead, Edwards now faces sex-crime charges for the third time in three states.
A search of Edwards’ criminal past turned up two previous sex-related convictions – on a Peeping Tom charge in Greenville County, S. Ca., and an indecent exposure in Fairfax County, Va.
He pleaded guilty to the Peeping Tom charge in 2006 and received an 18-month jail sentence, which included a requirement that he register as a sex offender. He pleaded no contest to the indecent exposure charge in 2013 and received a 180-day jail sentence, of which 120 days were suspended.
Here, Edwards was still in custody at the county jail earlier this week, even though County Judge Joe A. Wild set his bond at only $12,500, which is relatively low for someone charged with two felonies.
It’s especially low for a two-time sex offender.
On his criminal record alone, this guy has a seamy past. And there’s no way to know how much we don’t know, except that he has never done any real time in the fun house.
So it doesn’t matter that, thus far, none of his arrests have involved violent crimes.
If the allegations of what happened at Loggia are true – why would the witnesses lie? – he seems to be getting bolder.
Don’t forget what Kirby told us about Edwards’ creepy behavior on the beach.
That’s why the SAO must dump the disorderly conduct and, on the strength of the two eyewitnesses, upgrade the charge to exposure of sex organs in public.
If what happened on Ocean Drive last week was a crime, it was entirely sexual in nature and committed by a repeat sex offender who can’t seem to stop himself.
And unless I’m missing something, that’s dangerous.
