Estimated read time: 2-3 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
WEST VALLEY CITY — A man charged in a highly-publicized case in which he was accused of exposing himself to a child in a mall restroom was arrested Thursday in connection with a similar alleged crime.
Jonathan Soberanis, 23, was booked into the Salt Lake County Jail on suspicion of lewdness involving a child, interfering with an officer, failure to stop at the command of a law enforcement officer, and failure to disclose identity after a family reported that he had exposed himself in front of their 8-year-old boy Sunday at West Valley City’s Family Fitness Center located at 5415 W. 3100 S.
Christina Lopez said her son had run ahead of his father into the restroom, and when the father walked in, a man later identified by police as Soberanis was on his knees looking at the boy from beneath the stall.
“He exposed himself to my son and he did touch himself in front of my son,” the mother said.
Lopez said the boy’s father chased the man out of the restroom and then reported him to workers, a sequence police said was captured on surveillance video.
A probable cause statement said an officer was able to identify a friend who left with Soberanis, and that friend told him he saw Soberanis being confronted about something involving a child.
The document said Soberanis later admitted to the officer that he was “triggered” when he saw the boy, and he felt “sick and bad for doing this sort of thing and (wanted) help.”
“I feel like in this case, he needs to be prosecuted to the fullest that he can — to the max,” Lopez said.
Soberanis had previously been charged with misdemeanor lewdness involving a child and assault in connection with an April incident in Sandy at The Shops at South Town, in which prosecutors said Soberanis pulled his pants down in a restroom and exposed himself to a 9-year-old boy.
