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SANDY — A man wanted for allegedly exposing himself to a young boy in a restroom at a Sandy mall has been identified and charged.
On Tuesday, Jonathan Jareth Soberanis, 23, whose last known address was in Spanish Fork, was charged in 3rd District Court with lewdness involving a child, a class A misdemeanor; assault, a class B misdemeanor; and committing a violent offense in front of a child, a class B misdemeanor.
On April 28, a 9-year-old boy was in a restroom at the Shops at South Town when a man approached the boy, exposed himself and told the child to "come closer," according to charging documents.
The boy ran out of the restroom and when he found his mother, told her what happened. The boy pointed out the man to his mother. She then took a picture with her cellphone and attempted to take more "but the male knocked the phone out of her hand and pushed her to the ground," the charges state.
The man then ran out of the mall and was able to flag down a random vehicle for a ride, according to police.
After the picture the mother took was given to the media to post, at least two people called police both claiming it was Soberanis, according to a search warrant filed in 3rd District Court. A third person told a Provo police officer it was Soberanis, and that officer called Sandy police, the warrant states.
Detectives got a copy of Soberanis' driver's license photo and put it in a photo lineup. Both the mother and a detective who was not involved in the case picked Soberanis' photo as the one matching the cellphone picture, according to the warrant.
As of Thursday, Soberanis' whereabouts were unknown and a warrant was issued for his arrest.
In 2015, Soberanis pleaded no contest to lewdness in Lehi and was sentenced to probation and ordered to undergo mental health treatment, court records state.
