TAVARES, Florida—An Apopka man has been released from the Lake County Jail after two elderly women accused him of rubbing up against them while he was aroused in a Tavares store Saturday, according to an arrest affidavit.
Tavares Police Department responded to the area of Banning Beach Road and U.S. Highway 441 Saturday morning on a report of man masturbating at the register of a nearby business. Inside Lake is not naming the business because it may identify one of the victims.
A TPD corporal spotted a man fitting the complainant’s description of the suspect and carrying a bag from the business where the alleged incidents occurred at a nearby car dealership off U.S. Highway 441. The man, identified at Zehran Wilcox-Maxwell, 25, appeared to be getting into a vehicle as TPD approached him and asked where he had been, the affidavit states.
Wilcox-Maxwell said he was at another store in the area and the corporal asked him if he was at the business where the incidents were reported. He said, yes, and TPD asked him if there was anything he wanted to tell him about. Wilcox-Maxwell said he was in store to buy some items and then came back; TPD told him there was an allegation he was masturbating at the register and Wilcox-Maxwell denied it and told TPD to go check the cameras. Another officer arrived and stayed with Wilcox-Maxwell while the corporal went to the store where the incident allegedly took place, according to the affidavit.
When TPD arrived at the store, a 70-year-old woman said Wilcox-Maxwell pushed up against her once and an employee of the store, who is over 65, twice. Both women started giving TPD more details and said he was aroused while doing it. Wilcox-Maxwell did not expose his penis, but both women said it was “protruding from the front of his shorts,” the affidavit states.
Another customer overheard the conversation and said she had a similar experience with the man, but only provided her name and number before leaving the store.
TPD reviewed the store’s surveillance video and Wilcox-Maxwell is seen in several areas of the store. The cameras did not cover the areas where he touched the women, the corporal noted.
In one frame, Wilcox-Maxwell is seen with his hand near his crotch in a “stroking motion consistent with how someone would pleasure themselves,” the affidavit states.
Police spoke to the two victims and one victim said Wilcox-Maxwell asked her if the store carried drapes and she took him to an aisle to show him. She said he pushed up against her buttocks with an erection and she tried to move away; when she turned to walk away, and he came up behind her and did it again. The second victim told police Wilcox-Maxwell appeared to be masturbating and he approached her and “bumped” into her hip with an erection, according to the affidavit.
When confronted with the allegations, Wilcox-Maxwell denied them and said he has psoriasis on his inner thighs, and he was just scratching himself. He also denied touching any of the women.
Wilcox-Maxwell was arrested for two counts of battery on a victim over 65. According to Florida law, the incidents fall under the battery statute and are not considered sex crimes. He was transported to LCJ, where he was released on $4,000 bond Saturday night.