A 39-year-old man has been charged with indecent exposure following at least two incidents on campus.
Last Friday at 11:45 p.m., Shelby County Sheriff Deputies arrested Lee Arthur Rayford. The arrest and charges were based on a warrant obtained last week by University Police Services. Rayford met his $100 bail and was released late Monday afternoon.
The first of the two victims involved said she was notified by the Memphis Police Department when Rayford posted bail. She said she wasn't worried because she was asked to identify him again in a lineup on Tuesday morning.
"I trust that they'll get him," she said. "If it's the Memphis Police, they are definitely going to get him."
Rayford's track record is lengthy, beginning in 1988, when at 19 years old, he was charged with malicious mischief. The list continues with several arrests and charges, including convicted felon in possession of a handgun, receiving and concealing stolen property over $200, manufacturing/delivery/selling of controlled substances, driving with a suspended license, contempt of juvenile court and theft of property $500 or less.
"Once we put out the warrant, the Shelby County fugitive squad started looking for him, and we were doing the same thing," said Bruce Harber, director of Police Services. "We started checking his residence. We were primarily looking for places he would be."
The first victim said the suspect appeared to be picking someone up on Patterson Street when he exposed himself to the victims from the car.
As the victim sat on the steps of Patterson Hall, Rayford exposed his genitals to her and began masturbating. The suspect then drove off, but not before the victim wrote down his license plate number.
She said she was worried when she got up to check his car's license number, but she didn't want anything to happen to another student here on campus.
"It's not an easy thing to get up from your safe area," she said. "I had to get close enough to look at the tag, with all this other stuff in my head, but I didn't know his limits. I didn't know if he would get out of the car. I was just thinking, 'I have to do this.'"
She said she wasn't too scared because there were others around who "apparently just didn't notice what he was doing."
Just two days later, another victim said a man had pulled up beside her near Southern Avenue and Patterson to ask for directions as she walked to class. He then exposed himself to her.
She said she feels safer after the Rayford's arrest.
"It's good news, and it makes me feel safe," she said. "Well, not safe, but safer than before. What if I hadn't seen him? How would we have known about this weird guy? There could have been others."
The victim said she was never worried for her life, but she said anyone who is a victim of this type of crime should come forward and report it.
"(The police) couldn't do it on their own," she said. "They need help from us."
The first victim said she agreed with the second one.
"If you don't report it, it will keep happening," she said.
Harber said this was unique because one of the victims saw the suspect twice, and thought to write down his license plate number the second time, something that was "extremely helpful to the investigation."
He said there have been similar cases at The University of Memphis before, but the arrests usually took longer.
"The first year I was here, we had a guy doing something similar," he said. "It took us a couple of times before someone got a tag."
Harber said he hopes students see this case as an example of the importance of reporting crimes.
"Hopefully, (this arrest) shows we take matters like this seriously," he said. "We try to make the arrest as soon as possible. We hope students feel an enhanced sense of safety and security."
