MIAMI-DADE COUNTY, Fla. – A 15-year-old boy told his father that he was at the gym’s men’s locker room when a stranger started to masturbate while looking at him, according to a report the Miami-Dade Police Department released on Thursday afternoon.
The teenage boy reported the man — who a detective later identified as Joseph Noriega — first approached him in the men’s restroom and then followed him to the adjacent locker room on Aug. 28, according to the arrest report.
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Detectives with the special victims bureau questioned Noriega, 37, on Wednesday about the alleged crime at Planet Fitness, at 19189 S. Dixie Highway, in Cutler Bay, and they described his statement as “self-serving.”
Noriega also told police officers that he was born in Cuba and provided a residential address near the Robert Morgan Educational Center, a public park, and two elementary schools, according to the arrest report.
Noriega appeared in court on Thursday. A judge allowed corrections to release him on a $7,500 bond after the hearing, and the court set his arraignment for 9 a.m., on Oct. 6, with Miami-Dade County Circuit Judge Alberto Milian.
Noriega is facing a charge of a lewd or lascivious offense committed upon or in the presence of persons less than 16 years of age, a felony punishable by up to 15 years in prison, 15 years of sex offender probation, and a $10,000 fine.
Detectives were asking anyone with information about this or other cases involving Noriega to call Miami-Dade County Crime Stoppers at 305-471-8477.