Clearwater police also say the man had failed to register as a sexual offender.
By CHRIS TISCH
Published September 8, 2004
CLEARWATER - A man with a criminal record of child-sex abuse was arrested last week on charges that he exposed himself to children in his Clearwater apartment complex.
Keith A. Thompson, 41, was arrested Thursday on charges of lewd or lascivious exhibition and failing to register as a sexual offender, both felonies. He was being held at the Pinellas County Jail on Tuesday in lieu of $15,000 bail. He has pleaded not guilty to the charges.
Thompson was deemed a sexual offender in Ohio because of a child-sex abuse charge. He later moved to Nevada, where he registered as a sex offender. He then moved to Florida, said Detective Michael Folk of the Clearwater Police Department.
Nevada officials told the Florida Department of Law Enforcement in 2001 of Thompson's intended move to Florida. The FDLE sent him a letter ordering him to register his address, but Thompson didn't do that when he arrived in Florida, arrest reports state.
About a year ago, Thompson applied to live at the Oakbrook Village apartment complex on Nursery Road in Clearwater. Thompson lied on his application, saying he had no previous felony convictions, said Peter Bursik, president of Rainier Realty, which manages the facility.
The company hires a Dallas company to check the backgrounds of all its potential residents. But the check didn't unearth the previous sex abuse case, which would have prevented Thompson from getting a unit at the complex, Bursik said.
A message left with a vice president of the Dallas company was not returned Tuesday.
Last month, an 11-year-old boy told apartment managers that he saw Thompson standing in his apartment naked and masturbating, arrest reports state.
Apartment managers searched the FDLE Web site of sexual offenders and found Thompson on it. He is listed on the site as registering in August at an address on Ulmerton Road in Largo.
Managers called police, then issued Thompson a notice to leave the apartment within seven days.
Detectives interviewed the boy, who said he had seen Thompson masturbating in his apartment several times, as had other children in the complex.
When confronted by police, Thompson admitted to masturbating while watching the children from his sliding-glass door, arrest reports state.
Thompson told detectives he is attracted to young boys, reports state.
Detective Folk said he found that Thompson has used multiple dates of birth over the years, which may explain why he has been able to dodge background checks.
Folk is looking for other children who saw Thompson exposing himself in his apartment. More charges are pending as his investigation continues.
"I'm finding more and more," he said.
Anyone with information is asked to call Folk at 562-4242.
