NEW PORT RICHEY - Dale William Thompson was arrested Thursday afternoon after being accused of exposing himself to five girls, ages 7, 8, 9, 10 and 11, the Sheriff's Office reported.
Thompson, 43, of 6240 11th Ave., called the girls into a house, and when they went in, they found him naked and touching himself, the report said.
Thompson, who admitted to the act, told deputies that he told "the children not to tell so he would not go to jail," the report said.
He was being held in the county jail Friday in lieu of $50,000 bail on charges of lewd and lascivious behavior.
Two teens arrested on charges of arson
WESLEY CHAPEL - An 18-year-old Key West man and a 16-year-old juvenile from Tampa were arrested on charges of arson after starting a fire that burned three homes under construction in the Grand Oaks neighborhood May 10, the state Fire Marshal's Office reported Friday.
The two stripped a car for parts and set it on fire near a home at 25151 Geddy Drive, said fire marshal spokesman Michael Douglas.
The car, a 1994 Honda Accord, had been reported stolen from Hillsborough County a few days earlier.
The fire spread to the home and to two other adjacent homes, causing a total of $450,000 in damage, Douglas said. The houses were unoccupied, and there were no injuries.
The 16-year-old, whose name was withheld by the Times because of his age, surrendered to state fire marshal detectives at the county jail Friday, Douglas said.
Mark E. Mendez of 1517 E Tunney Court in Key West turned himself in Thursday, a sheriff's report said.
Mendez was being held Friday in the county jail in lieu of $10,000 bail. Douglas said the 16-year-old will be tried as an adult and was being held Friday in the county jail in lieu of $50,000 bail.
Three accused of stealing jewelry, $10,000 in cash
HUDSON - Two men were arrested Thursday, and a woman Friday, on charges of stealing $1,300 in jewelry and $10,000 in cash from a New Port Richey man on June 21, the Sheriff's Office reported.
Jason Tellado, 20, of 6531 Celeste Lane told detectives he had gone to a mall with a "girl named Stephanie," whom he had met the previous night, a report said.
She told Tellado she wanted to stop at a friend's house before she took Tellado to his home in her van. When she went inside, three men came out, got into her van and took off with Tellado in it, Tellado told detectives.
The three men drove Tellado in a green van to a remote location on Colony Road. Once there, they took his money and jewelry as he was sitting in the van. Then they threw him from the van, a report said.
Tellado told detectives that the reason he had so much cash was because he had received an insurance settlement and was going to buy a car, the report said.
Eric Dale Diaz, 23, of 10933 Lyndale Ave., and Stephanie Lynn Steward, 19, of 6700 Hone St., both of New Port Richey, and Vernon Thomas Sowell, 24, of 11010 Grant Drive in Port Richey, were arrested on charges of strong-arm robbery.
The three were being held in the county jail: Diaz in lieu of $21,000 bail, and Sowell in lieu of $10,000. Steward, who also faces a probation violation, was held without bail.
Woman faces child abuse charge after boy, 4, runs out into traffic
DADE CITY - A 19-year-old woman faces a child abuse charge after police said a 4-year-old boy in her care ran out of the house and about a half mile in and out of traffic on U.S. 301.
Michelle Potman of 15910 U.S. 301 was in her house Thursday about 7:45 p.m. when she saw the boy run out the door, according to a sheriff's report.
She ran after him as far as the front yard, the report said. She returned into the house to change the diaper of her 3-month-old baby. Deputies soon responded to a call of a child running through traffic near the Joy-lan Drive-In Theater. Deputies saw the boy crossing north and southbound lanes of U.S. 301, according to the report. At that point, he was seven-tenths of a mile from home.
When deputies tracked down Potman, she said the boy had run out of the house and she could not catch him. Potman was in the Land O'Lakes jail on Friday in lieu of $5,000 bail.
