Police: 9 Arrested In Men's Bathroom Sex Sting At Central Florida Mall (Foot-tappers)

Local 6 (Florida) ^ | November 2, 2006

[Stoat]

Police: 9 Arrested In Men's Bathroom Sex Sting At Central Florida Mall

Men Would Tap Feet, Zip Zippers Before Acts, Chief Says

 

POSTED: 11:34 pm EDT November 1, 2007

UPDATED: 1:08 am EDT November 2, 2007

 

VOLUSIA COUNTY, Fla. -- A group of men, including a former candidate for mayor and a high school teacher, was arrested on charges they performed sex acts or exposed themselves in a Central Florida mall bathroom, according to police.

Investigators said nine men were arrested Thursday night in a Sears department store men's room located in the Volusia Mall. "These men would go into the men's room and they would tap their feet, zip their zipper, make all kinds of noises and even reach under the stall," Daytona Beach Police Chief Mike Chitwood said.

The men arrested included SeaBreeze High School health teacher David Behringer and former city Commissioner Mike Shallow.

"The undercover officer told me he actually tried to come under the stall, where he was actually looking up at the undercover officer while he was performing his act," Chitwood said. A 70-year-old man was also arrested during the 10-hour sex sting, police said.

"The bothering thing is that you are coming up on the Christmas season, so you are out there shopping in the mall and your kid wants to run to the bathroom, you have a bunch of sick, degenerate, vile perverts in there doing their thing," Chitwood said. Officers said the sting was prompted by tips from mall security.

"Of course, everybody denies, (and says) 'It wasn't us,'" Chitwood said. "We certainly didn't go there and entice anybody, and we didn't put an ad out."

[mmanager]

Mom, Dad, Wife and Kids are not going to be happy.......sick.

[Minutemen]

bump

[csvset]

Originally appeared on News-Journal Online at
http://www.news-journalonline.com/NewsJournalOnline/News/Headlines/frtHEAD01110207.htm

Ex Daytona commissioner, teacher charged in sex sting

By KARI COBHAM
Staff Writer

DAYTONA BEACH -- A former Daytona Beach city commissioner and a local high school teacher were among nine men arrested Thursday during a sex sting in a bathroom at the Volusia Mall, police said.

Detectives arrested former commissioner and mayoral candidate Michael Shallow and David Behringer, an athletic trainer and teacher at Seabreeze High School, according to arrest reports.

Shallow Behringer Benson Millard Peterson Halpin Brown Bach Volage

All nine men were charged with lewd and lascivious conduct and exposure of a sexual organ, both misdemeanors, police said. They were booked into the Volusia County Branch Jail on Thursday night, all with bail set at $1,000.

"The reason that we did this sting is we all go to the mall; our kids go into the bathroom," Police Chief Mike Chitwood said. "That they could be susceptible to this kind of behavior is absolutely a disgrace."

Also arrested were registered sex offender Douglas Benson, 48, of Port Orange, who was previously caught masturbating in the restroom of a day care center; and Edgar Millard, 73, Daytona Beach, charged in 2006 with sexual misconduct at a beachside bathroom, police said.

Detectives received a tip from officials at the Sears department store that sexual misconduct was taking place in its second-floor men's restroom, Chitwood said.

Further investigation by police found that encounters at local places like Sears were advertised online on Web sites like Craigslist and one that provides links to other sexually explicit sites, Chitwood said.

"This is a clandestine, subculture event," Chitwood said at a Thursday night press conference. "There's a whole culture that runs under the radar doing their thing."

A team of six officers from the Police Department's criminal suppression team joined forces with undercover officers from Volusia County Beach Patrol to nab the offenders from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Thursday. The Beach Patrol regularly deals with similar misconduct at public bathrooms near the beach, Chitwood said.

"Most everything that's occurring is nonverbal," said Sgt. Jeff Hoffman, supervisor of the criminal suppression team.

Offenders coughed or sneezed, tapped their feet, sometimes under the stall beside them, or made loud zipper noises to attract attention from others interested in engaging in sexual acts, Hoffman said.

"It's scumbags like this that erode the quality of life that we have here," Chitwood said. "What scares me is that these are people that we trust to be political leaders, these are people that we trust with our children."

Shallow, 57, served two terms as a city commissioner from 1999-2003 and ran for mayor unsuccessfully in 2003, 2005 and 2007, finishing a distant fourth in the last race Oct. 9.

The Realtor and real estate broker also served as chairman of the Main Street Redevelopment Board in 2004-2005, and was on the Downtown-Ballough Road Redevelopment Board while he was a commissioner.

Daytona Beach Mayor Glenn Ritchey said he was "disappointed and sad and sorry for him and his wife and family."

"There's nothing I can say. I've known him for a long time. I was shocked. It's such a sad thing," Ritchey said.

Neil Harrington, a personal friend of Shallow's, was shocked at the arrest.

"I just can't believe that; I have no indication that Mike would ever be involved in anything like that," Harrington said.

Others arrested in the sting include Sebastian Bach, 37, Panama City; Larry Brown, 42, DeBary; William Volage, 46, and Kenneth Halpin, 44, both of Ormond Beach; and Ransom Peterson, 73, Port Orange.

Representatives for Sears and the Volusia Mall could not be reached for comment Thursday night.

kari.cobham@news-jrnl.com

-- Staff Writer Pamela Hasterok contributed to this report.

---

© 2007 News-Journal Corporation. ® www.news-journalonline.com. Do not republish or distribute without permission.

[R. Scott]

Thanks to this article and the publicity around the senator I’ve learned a few things about public rest rooms.
I had best not pick up anything I drop.
I had best not allow my foot to stray too close to an adjoining stall.
I had best not tap my foot - no listening to music!
I had best not unzip my zipper. Uh, that might present a problem. Guess I’ll just stay home.

[HANG THE EXPENSE]

Because they are degenerates

[Kakaze]

It's crazy..I traveled this summer with my sister and my nephew he's 10. So of course I'm not sending him alone into a bathroom at the airport in Chicago, or Dallas.

Its a double edged sword, as you stand there waiting to make sure some pervert doesn't bother him.......everyone else wonders why your standing over by the sink and I'm looking at other guys who are waiting for their kids too, trying to figure out if they are the perverts.

Sheesh

[Sacajaweau]

I was about 13 when I was approached by a lesbian at our local YWCA. I really didn't know what the hell she was talking about so I told my older brother when I got home.

He told me to just stay away from here. A couple of weeks later...since she was still hanging around and walking around the stall where I was changing...I simply quit the Y.

Kids need to know that they should go to an adult. We should not be catching up with these people ten years after the fact. The church did a terrible injustice to many with their "confidentiality agreements" and payoffs. The actions of the priests were "criminal".

[Brilliant]

“they would tap their feet, zip their zipper, make all kinds of noises and even reach under the stall...”

Remind me not to tap my feet, zip my zipper, or make noises in a public rest room. Hopefully, they’ve got some better evidence than this, but I would not count on it.

[Kimmers]

LOL....so true....I use the facility, I wash my hands and I am out of there....

No secret hand signals for us gals !!!!

[OBXWanderer]

thought that name sounded familiar:

It was familiar to me as well...thinking of Joey Chitwood, of stunt driving fame...however, I think they came from Zephyrhills, on the other side of the state, near Tampa.

[FreedomPoster]

I like your answer for sending a message, except if I did that there would be a .40 round on the floor.

[FreedomPoster]

I’d say the best-known name in Philly law enforcement would be Rizzo.

[Rb ver. 2.0]

[CDHart]

A preacher that I listen to said that in one hospital for AIDS patients, they had a hard time keeping the homosexual staff out of the beds of the AIDS patients.

Carolyn

[Red Badger]

Comment #xx Removed by Moderator

Might as well post this since it will be removed anyway........Save the Mod some work.....;^)

[CindyDawg]

It’s bad enough that people act like this in public but it’s worrisome that a person that does , is even in there. I have several small grandchildren. We go out a lot. I take them with me into the women’s bathroom. The oldest boy is 7 and I noticed a couple of weeks ago that he is starting to get unconfortable with that. If it’s a small bathroom I check out that the men’s is empty first but I can’t always do that. I don’t want to make a baby out of him but I’m concerned about safety. Any suggestions?

[yldstrk]

Just check ou the mens and then stand guard outside it til he’s done, I guess. When I read this I asked my 18 yr old son if he ever saw anything wierd in any rest rooms because we were all over as a family traveling, out shopping seeing shows etc during his growing up and he said no, thank heaven.

[Lancey Howard]

I’d say the best-known name in Philly law enforcement would be Rizzo.

That would be absolutely correct:

[JZelle]

When’s your court date ;)

[subterfuge]

They will go anywhere where there is any slight chance of people, and preferably children, will be disrobing and vulnerable.

I know some gay guys, relatives actually, that parade around with their address on their t-shirts.