{"id":395153,"date":"2026-09-09T21:18:10","date_gmt":"2026-09-09T21:18:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/395153\/"},"modified":"2026-09-09T21:18:10","modified_gmt":"2026-09-09T21:18:10","slug":"tallahassee-registered-sex-offender-arrested-accused-of-assaulting-65-year-old-in-public","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/395153\/","title":{"rendered":"Tallahassee registered sex offender arrested, accused of assaulting 65-year-old in public"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"text | article-text\">TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WCTV) &#8211; A Tallahassee registered sex offender is behind bars after being accused of assaulting a 65-year-old woman Sunday night, according to court documents. <\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Paul Pestel Jr., 59, was taken into custody at about 7:30 p.m. Sunday, court documents revealed. He is charged with attempted sexual battery, sexual battery, two counts of intimidation, battery on a person 65 years old or older, resisting an officer without violence and indecent exposure. <\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"figure-img img-fluid mx-auto d-block\" fetchpriority=\"low\" loading=\"lazy\" alt=\"A Tallahassee registered sex offender is behind bars after being accused of assaulting a...\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/YFUDQGXCYJAMNHMGYAVDE2I4KY.png\" width=\"980\" height=\"551\" \/>A Tallahassee registered sex offender is behind bars after being accused of assaulting a 65-year-old woman Sunday night, according to court documents.(Leon County Jail)<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">According to a probable cause affidavit, officers responded after multiple callers reported a sexual battery taking place at the intersection of West Tennessee Street and Macomb Street. <\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">The responding officer located the suspect with assistance from a drone from the Consolidated Dispatch Agency (CDA). Upon arrival, the Tallahassee PD officer observed the suspect \u201con top of the victim\u201d with no shirt and his pants down to his legs.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Court documents say the suspect initially resisted, but was apprehended with assistance from responding officers. Documents say the victim \u201cappeared visibly shaken\u201d and told officers she didn\u2019t want the suspect to touch her. <\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Florida State University (FSU) PD officers also responded as the alleged assault occurred near the school campus. They issued a trespass warning out of concern for the vulnerable student population nearby.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text text-center\">More on crime in our area:<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Multiple witnesses reportedly told Tallahassee Police they observed the alleged act and the victim\u2019s calls for help. The affidavit says the victim told police that Pestel \u201cchoked her and forced her to the ground\u201d and also threatened to physically penetrate her.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">The victim avoided questions regarding physical penetration but \u201cdid not deny\u201d that he orally assaulted her. She told police that she did not know Pestell well but she \u201csees him around.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">While in custody, Pestel allegedly threatened officers, detectives and the victim, leading to additional charges. <\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Pestel was previously convicted of sexual battery in 1998 and in 2006. He was registered with a home address in Leon County with no vehicle on file. <\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">To keep up with the latest news as it develops, follow WCTV on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/WCTV.tv\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Facebook<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/wctvnews\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Instagram<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/@WCTVEyewitnessNews\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">YouTube<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/nextdoor.com\/page\/wctv\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/nextdoor.com\/page\/wctv\/\" target=\"_blank\">Nextdoor<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/nextdoor.com\/page\/wctv\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/nextdoor.com\/page\/wctv\/\" target=\"_blank\"> <\/a>and <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/WCTV\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">X<\/a> (<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/WCTV\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Twitter<\/a>).<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Have a news tip or see an error? <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wctv.tv\/2026\/09\/09\/tallahassee-registered-sex-offender-arrested-accused-assaulting-65-year-old-public\/mailto:news@wctv.tv?subject=Correction%20Needed\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Write to us here<\/a>. Please include the article\u2019s headline in your message.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Be the first to see all the biggest headlines by downloading the WCTV News app. Click <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wctv.tv\/2024\/12\/18\/download-free-wctv-mobile-streaming-apps-today\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">here<\/a> to get started.<\/p>\n<p>Copyright 2026 WCTV. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><script async src=\"\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WCTV) &#8211; A Tallahassee registered sex offender is behind bars after being accused of assaulting a&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":395154,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[1721,1422,157603,634,157604,115,157602,232,234,233,6049,1634,31975],"class_list":["post-395153","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tallahassee","tag-capital-city","tag-florida-state-university","tag-fsupd","tag-local","tag-macomb-street","tag-news","tag-paul-pestel-jr","tag-tallahassee","tag-tallahassee-headlines","tag-tallahassee-news","tag-tallahassee-police-department","tag-tpd","tag-west-tennessee-street"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/395153","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=395153"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/395153\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/395154"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=395153"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=395153"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=395153"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}