MEMPHIS, Tenn. — A man is behind bars after police say he was harassing a jogger in downtown Memphis.
Lindsey O’Brien waited for the sun to come up before going for a run downtown.
She’s visiting from Chicago and has seen a lot.
“I’ve been threatened to be stabbed, I’ve been exposed to several times,” O’Brien said.
Still, she didn’t want to take any chances in a strange city but had no idea a woman was flashed on the same street a day earlier.
“I don’t know what you do. What do you do about these folks?” O’Brien said.
Memphis Police say a woman was jogging near front and Monroe around 6 a.m. Thursday morning. When James dropped his pants and made a lewd gesture.
The jogger told officers she tried to get away, but he kept following her and says he’s done it before.
Tim Webster knows James and thinks he may have seen him follow a woman along front this week.
“She was coming this way and the other women were going to the school right there, ” Webster said.
Police say they’ve received other complaints from people downtown about James flashing. In fact, one woman who didn’t want to go on camera says this past weekend she was walking her dog at night near the same intersection when James approached her completely naked and she called the police.
Nearly a year ago James admitted to exposing himself to two female joggers on North Main and was sentenced to just two days in jail.
In 2015 he was also convicted of indecent exposure. That time it happened in front of a playground in Orange Mound.
“He needs to do some more time because that’s stupidity,” Webster said.
Webster says James is likely to do it again.
Fred James is due in court Thursday. He’s charged with indecent exposure.
