Months after his release from prison, a Franklin man police have called a serial flasher was arrested on a parole violation and is under investigation in an indecent exposure case.
Justin M. Wagers, 37, was arrested on a parole violation this week. He was arrested two days after officers were called by a Franklin woman who reported a man inside his home flashing her and fondling himself when she let her dog outside. Wagers is a suspect in that case, according to the police report.
Wagers has a criminal history that dates back to at least 2001, with multiple convictions on charges of vicarious sexual gratification, public indecency and intimidation. He has spent more than five years in prison, including serving more than a year in prison after his most recent convictions in Johnson and Marion counties, according to Indiana Department of Correction records. And he is listed on the sex offender registration in Morgan County for two counts of vicarious sexual gratification in 2005 and in Marion County for one count of performing sexual conduct in the presence of a minor in 2016.
In August, Wagers was released from prison after serving more than a year for convictions of public indecency with a prior conviction in both Marion and Johnson counties. On Wednesday, he was arrested for violating his parole.
Wagers violated his parole by not following his parole agent’s instructions, said Doug Garrison, spokesman for the Indiana Department of Correction. Garrison declined to give further details about what instructions Wagers did not follow.
The investigation in Franklin is separate from the parole violation, Franklin Police Chief Tim O’Sullivan said.
On Monday, just after 8 p.m., police were called to a home in the 1900 block of Acorn Road. A woman was letting her dog outside in her backyard, and looked up and saw a man standing naked in the window of a home behind hers. The man at first tried to cover up when he saw the woman outside, but then continued to watch her and began touching himself, according to the Franklin Police Department report.
The man that the woman described matched Wagers’ description. The home where the man was seen, on Torino Way, is where Wagers lives, the report said. Wagers has not been arrested in that case.
Wagers’ past arrests have repeatedly involved him exposing himself or touching himself in front of women, according to police reports.
Beginning in June 2015, local police departments started getting calls about a man who had exposed himself to women and children. The man had knocked on women’s doors, sat on their porches and pulled up to them on the street. When they looked at him, he exposed himself. One report involved a 14-year-old girl, and another was from a woman who was with her children. Wagers was arrested in August of that year after police used surveillance video at a Center Grove area gas station where a woman said he had followed her when she aired up her bicycle tires. The woman was able to identify Wagers as the man who then drove into a neighborhood, got out of his truck and exposed himself to her.
That same week, employees of a Goodwill store off State Road 135 on the southside reported a man had been in the store and exposed himself to a woman and a child while they were shopping. Employees had seen Wagers’ photo after his arrest in Johnson County and believed he was the man who exposed himself. The customer was able to identify Wagers in a photo lineup.
Wagers was charged in both counties, pleaded guilty to three felonies and was sentenced to two years total. He was released from prison after serving about 16 months, according to the Indiana Department of Correction.
Wagers, 1064 Torino Court, was taken to the Johnson County jail, where he was held without bond.
