ROCKY RIVER, Ohio -- Police have charged a man with spying on women in the restroom at Panera.
David W. Coughlin, 53, was arrested Tuesday evening, minutes after a
woman using the restroom at the Rocky River Panera saw a man slide his
head under the stall.
She screamed and the man ran out of the restroom. Police were called
and arrested Coughlin a few blocks away. He was charged with voyeurism, a
third degree misdemeanor.
"I am even more shaken up today than I was last night," the victim
told WKYC Wednesday. "Thank God I did not have my four and a half year
old daughter in there with me. Imagine how that would have traumatized
her."
Coughlin has a local arrest record dating back to 1988. It includes
previous charges of voyeurism, along with public intoxication, resisting
arrest, disorderly conduct, and public indecency.
Suburbs in which he's been arrested include Rocky River, Westlake,
Bay Village, Lakewood, Fairview Park and the Metroparks. He has a drug
conviction in Sarasota, Florida.
Rocky River Police are looking into other possible incidents,
including one from a few months ago, in which Panera surveillance tape
appears to show a man disappearing into the same ladies restroom and not
exiting until 40 minutes later.
Coughlin was released after his arrest and will appear in Rocky River
Municipal Court in October. He could not be reached at the two
previous Cleveland addresses listed on his arrest records.
His first run-in with the law was in 1984, when Westlake Police
chased him from the women's restroom in Clague Park. He was arrested in
the same restroom in 1988, and in the 1990's was picked up for spying on
women in the restrooms of a local Borders bookstore, and a K-Mart.
In one instance, according to police reports, he removed a dispenser
for femine hygiene products so he could peer through a hole in wall.
Prior to his Tuesday evening arrest, Coughlin was reportedly at the
Panera's in Lakewood, but left for Rocky River, telling an employee
"there wasn't enough action there."
WKYC