A convicted sex offender who admitted sexually harassing girls who were shopping at a Temecula mall may be facing extradition to Texas for alleged offenses there after he’s sentenced in Riverside County, according to documents released Thursday.
Joshua Michael Wafer, 32, of Hemet pleaded guilty on Wednesday to two counts of annoying minors, as well as a single count of resisting arrest, all misdemeanors. The plea was directly to Superior Court Judge Kay Kiel, without input from the District Attorney’s Office.
The judge scheduled a sentencing hearing for Aug. 4 at the Southwest Justice Center in Murrieta. Wafer is expected to receive mandatory supervision. He remains free on a $55,000 bond
Court records now available to the public indicated the defendant has an outstanding arrest warrant in Texas for alleged acts of indecent exposure in the last two years. It was not immediately known whether authorities in the Lone Star State intended to seek his extradition.
According to a bail-setting affidavit filed by sheriff’s investigators, on the afternoon of last May 31, two 14-year-old girls were shopping together at the Promenade Mall in the 40000 block of Winchester Road, and were getting off the escalator when Wafer accosted them.
“He displayed a pornographic video on his cell phone and made sexual gestures with his tongue, directed at the victims,” the affidavit stated. “The porn was male and female. They were fully naked and were engaging in sexual intercourse. Wafer was smiling when he showed them the porn.”
One of the girls told detectives that it was obvious “Wafer was simulating oral sex to her” by flicking his tongue, according to court papers.
A boy who happened to witness the behavior pulled out his mobile phone and captured the latter part of the encounter via video, then snapped pictures of Wafer as the girls hastily walked away from him, according to investigators.
The images were provided to mall security, whom the girls and the passerby immediately sought out. Detectives then processed the photos and quickly located Wafer in a crime database stemming from a prior conviction, according to the sheriff’s department.
The victims and witness all positively identified him.
An arrest warrant was procured and served on Wafer three days later at his residence on Auld Avenue, where he was taken into custody without incident. The resisting arrest conviction related to his lack of cooperation with authorities in November, when he was arrested for indecent exposure in Hemet.
That case was disposed and folded into the plea agreement approved by the court Wednesday.
Court records show that Wafer has a documented prior conviction for sexual battery out of Washington, D.C. His conviction in that case required him to register as a sex offender.