MELBOURNE, Fla. – A man is facing charges after police say he committed lewd acts in front of juveniles at a Melbourne playground.
Just before 7 p.m. Wednesday, police responded to a report of suspicious activity at Oxford Ridge Playground on Croton Road.
According to a news release, two young witnesses, ages 10 and 11, told officers that a man was lying on his back in the playground area, engaging in a lewd act while watching them.
[EXCLUSIVE: Become a News 6 Insider (it’s FREE) | PINIT! Share your photos]
When officers arrived, the suspect, later identified as Jose Luis O’Neill Caraballo,33, tried to flee. Despite verbal commands to stop, he resisted but was detained after a brief pursuit, the release stated.
According to an arrest affidavit, Caraballo denied the allegations but showed signs of evasive behavior. Police found his shorts unzipped with no underwear underneath during a search at the station.
Caraballo was charged with lewd and lascivious exhibition to a minor, exposure of sexual organs, and resisting an officer without violence. Caraballo was booked into Brevard County Jail with a bond set at $30,000.
If he can post his bond, a judge ordered Caraballo cannot return to the playground or make contact with the kids.
“I’d say the kids were amazing,” Commander Shawn Eising said. “To identify that something like this existed and that was wrong, and to, out of fear for their own safety, separate themselves enough to be able to still maintain a visual of what was going on and to call it in.”
In 2017, Caraballo was accused of exposing himself at the playground at Jimmy Moore Park.
In that case, police said he took a plea bargain and didn’t have to register as a sex offender.
Caraballo’s new arrest report reads he didn’t wanna go to jail again.
He told police, “Please, just trespass me. I will never come back to this park.”
Police addressed the possibility of any other victims.
“We encourage anybody to call us if there was a situation where someone observed this in the past,” Eising said. “Heaven forbid, there was a physical contact at some point, the person just didn’t feel comfortable coming forward or courageous enough to come forward.”