News

Sex offender pleads not guilty to lewd act

Published August 15, 2017 6:29 AM

A 25-year-old man who allegedly entered a Palm Springs Walmart bathroom stall occupied by a teenager and committed a sex act in front of her pleaded not guilty during his arraignment on Monday for charges of attempted lewd acts on a minor, burglary, false imprisonment, indecent exposure and child annoyance.

Tyler Ray Berthoud of Oak Hills in San Bernardino County was arrested last Wednesday afternoon at the Walmart at 5601 Ramon Road after several store patrons and employees restrained him as he left the rest room, said Palm Springs Sgt. William Hutchinson. According to Hutchinson, the suspect stuck his head underneath the bottom of a stall in the women’s restroom while a 13-year-old girl was inside. Berthoud entered the stall and masturbated in front of her but did not physically harm or molest the girl, the sergeant said. Witnesses heard the girl screaming and Berthoud was apprehended by a group of people after he left the restroom. Hutchinson called Berthoud a “brazen, dangerous individual” and “someone we don’t want in this community or any community for that matter.”
On Monday a judge scheduled a felony settlement conference for August 23 and a preliminary hearing set for August 25.
Court records show he recently stood trial in Indio on misdemeanor sexual battery and child annoyance charges in a case out of Wildomar in which he was accused of trying to pick up two teenage girls at a McDonald’s, then following a woman into her apartment complex and grabbing her buttocks. A jury found him guilty on the child annoyance count, according to court records, and he additionally pleaded guilty last Tuesday to misdemeanor counts of sexual battery and being under the influence of controlled substances. He was sentenced to a one-year county jail term but had already accumulated enough credit for time served to secure his release last Tuesday, though he was required to register as a sex offender. He was released from the Larry D. Smith Correctional Facility in Banning and was arrested by Palm Springs police the following day. Berthoud is being held in lieu of $1 million bail.