A 48-year-old North Miami Beach man is facing a felony charge after two children, ages 10 and 17, told police he exposed himself to them while they were taking out the trash outside their apartment complex last week. Eric Leon Wilson was arrested and booked into jail on charges of lewd and lascivious exhibition on a child, indecent exposure, and disorderly conduct or breach of the peace.
According to an arrest report cited by WPLG Local 10, the two minors were taking out the trash at about 8:45 p.m. last Friday when they noticed Wilson watching them from down the hallway with his red shorts pulled down. Police said the children became frightened and did not want to walk past his apartment, so they returned to their own units by another route outside the complex. Officers with the North Miami Beach Police Department responded to the complex after receiving the report, per the arrest report.
Investigators say the children identified the suspect through a photograph they took during the incident. The 10-year-old later provided a video statement to an officer, while the 17-year-old gave a written statement, police said.
Surveillance Footage Backs Up the Kids’ Account
Apartment complex surveillance video corroborated the minors’ accounts, according to investigators. The footage reportedly showed Wilson’s shorts pulled halfway down as he exposed himself, and also showed him watching the children as they took out the trash, per the same report.
The 17-year-old also told investigators she had seen Wilson watching her from the parking lot on two previous occasions while she was in her bedroom, and said she and the other minor had also seen him watching them from his balcony, according to the arrest report. She was unable to provide specific dates or times for those earlier incidents, an unresolved detail the dossier notes has not yet been independently verified.
When officers spoke with Wilson, he told police he had just returned home from work. After being read his Miranda rights, he denied having had contact with anyone, according to the arrest report — a denial that stands in contrast to the surveillance video and the two witness statements investigators say corroborate the children’s version of events.
Felony Charge Carries Steep Penalties Under Florida Law
Wilson was booked into the Miami-Dade Corrections and Rehabilitation Department’s MetroWest Detention Center in Doral, a maximum-security facility with an operational bed capacity of more than 1,600 inmates, and was held on an $8,650 bond as of Monday, according to online jail records. In Miami-Dade County, suspects typically appear before a magistrate judge at a bond court hearing, where bail is set based on the severity of the charges and public safety considerations.
Florida law draws a sharp line between general indecent exposure and exposure involving children. Under Florida Statute § 800.03, a first offense of indecent exposure is a first-degree misdemeanor punishable by up to a year in jail, a year of probation, and a $1,000 fine. But exposing genitals in a lewd or lascivious manner in front of a minor under 16, under Florida Statute § 800.04(7), is a second-degree felony carrying up to 15 years in prison and a $10,000 fine.
A conviction under that felony statute also triggers mandatory, lifelong sex offender registration under Florida Statute § 943.0435, with no judicial discretion to waive it. Registered offenders must report in person to local law enforcement twice a year and update any change in residence, vehicle, or employment within 48 hours, according to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.
Part of a Pattern Across South Florida
The case adds to a string of public exposure investigations that have surfaced across South Florida this year. In July, Miami-Dade police arrested a 42-year-old registered sex offender near the Busway after he allegedly exposed himself in front of a family with young children. And in North Miami Beach itself, an Uber driver was arrested in December 2025 and charged with lewd and lascivious conduct after allegedly making sexual advances toward a 15-year-old passenger during a ride booked through Uber Teens.
North Miami Beach, a city of roughly 43,898 residents where minors make up close to 22 percent of the population, has seen a run of unsettling cases involving its own police force and residents in recent months, from a police captain accused in a video voyeurism case to a resident accused in an alleged nude video stalking spree. Investigators have not said whether Wilson’s case is connected to any prior reports at the complex.
