A man convicted of masturbating in public several times is facing new charges less than a year after allegedly ejaculating on a woman at a Portland bookstore.
William James Wimberly Jr. is accused of masturbating in front of two women in separate incidents last month at a Northeast Portland sauna. He faces two counts of misdemeanor public indecency in the case.
The first of two incidents at the Common Ground Wellness Cooperative occurred Dec. 7, when a woman reported Wimberly was masturbating next to her in a co-ed sauna, according to a probable cause affidavit.
Wimberly, 26, didn’t have a towel as required by sauna rules, according to the court document. The woman was wearing one.
She reported the incident to Common Ground staff, and a staffer told her Wimberly’s name.
A responding Portland police officer looked him up and learned he was on release from custody in a public indecency case and had been convicted of public indecency in the past.
The officer who responded to the first sauna incident later learned of another, which occurred two days later.
A second sauna user saw a man, identified in the affidavit as Wimberly, masturbating. She left and later called to complain.
Melissa Di Rito, general manager at Common Ground, said Wimberly was not a member of the cooperative. She said the alleged incidents occurred on his first two visits, which were within two days of each other. The second accuser, she said, didn’t complain until a week later.
“We took action immediately after learning about the incidents by banning him from Common Ground and filing a police report,” she wrote in an email. “We take incidents very seriously, and we took all the necessary actions to ensure a safe and healing experience for our customers.”
Wimberly was jailed Dec. 23 and is set to be arraigned on an indictment Friday, Jan. 31.
In July he pleaded not guilty to public indecency and third-degree sexual abuse for allegedly ejaculating on a woman at a Portland bookstore earlier that year. The case remains open.
Wimberly suffers from fetal alcohol syndrome, according to court records.
-- Jim Ryan; jryan@oregonian.com; 503-221-8005; @Jimryan015
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