{"id":363503,"date":"2026-08-05T15:54:35","date_gmt":"2026-08-05T15:54:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/363503\/"},"modified":"2026-08-05T15:54:35","modified_gmt":"2026-08-05T15:54:35","slug":"no-charges-against-man-accused-of-following-woman-touching-himself-inside-homegoods-store-jso-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/363503\/","title":{"rendered":"No charges against man accused of following woman, touching himself inside HomeGoods store, JSO says"},"content":{"rendered":"

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2013 The Jacksonville Sheriff\u2019s Office said it closed a case with no charges filed against a man accused of following a woman through a River City Marketplace HomeGoods who was sexually gratifying himself while watching her<\/a>.<\/p>\n

On July 21, JSO reviewed the incident after the News4JAX I-TEAM<\/a> began asking questions about the case, which gained widespread attention after Jacksonville resident Rhiannon Alvarez shared her experience in a TikTok video viewed tens of thousands of times.<\/p>\n

Alvarez told News4JAX she was shopping for home decor when she noticed a man following her through the store. She said she later realized he was sexually gratifying himself while watching her.<\/p>\n

After alerting store employees, Alvarez recorded the man\u2019s license plate and called the Jacksonville Sheriff\u2019s Office.<\/p>\n

She said officers arrived about three hours later and told her there was nothing they could do. Although she said the responding officer reviewed the store\u2019s surveillance video, she was told no charges could be filed.<\/p>\n

When the I-TEAM initially requested a copy of the incident report, JSO responded that no records existed but confirmed the agency had received a call about the incident.<\/p>\n

After News4JAX contacted the sheriff\u2019s office with additional questions, the agency said detectives are now reviewing the case.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can tell you that our detectives are actively looking into this case, so they\u2019re currently unable to provide any updates at this time,\u201d a JSO spokesperson said in a statement.<\/p>\n

It is unclear what prompted the detective review or whether the investigation could result in arrest or criminal charges.<\/p>\n

In the original interview with News4JAX, Alvarez questioned why the alleged conduct did not violate Florida law.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel like that\u2019s just as much a crime as anything else,\u201d she said. \u201cI don\u2019t understand how it doesn\u2019t fall under public indecency or lewd and lascivious conduct.\u201d<\/p>\n

The I-TEAM found that under Florida law, simply touching oneself in public is not automatically a crime. Florida\u2019s exposure statute generally requires a person to expose their sexual organs in a vulgar or indecent manner. Depending on the facts of a case, prosecutors may have limited charging options if no exposure occurred.<\/p>\n

Alvarez\u2019s TikTok video has since generated hundreds of comments from women describing similar encounters, prompting calls for lawmakers to examine whether Florida law adequately addresses incidents like the one she described.<\/p>\n

HomeGoods previously provided the following statement to News4JAX:<\/p>\n

\u201cAt HomeGoods, we take the security of our customers and Associates very seriously. We are aware of this matter and have cooperated with the Jacksonville Sheriff\u2019s Office. We will continue to assist law enforcement as appropriate and respectfully defer further comment to the authorities.\u201d<\/p>\n

The I-TEAM will continue to follow the investigation and update this story as more information becomes available.<\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 by WJXT News4JAX – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2013 The Jacksonville Sheriff\u2019s Office said it closed a case with no charges filed against a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":347762,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[91419,116,118,117,1415,1872],"class_list":["post-363503","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jacksonville","tag-i-team-investigations","tag-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville-headlines","tag-jacksonville-news","tag-jacksonville-sheriffs-office","tag-jso"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/363503","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=363503"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/363503\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/347762"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=363503"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=363503"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=363503"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}