Prior Offender Charged With Exposing Himself at Panera Bread

A man previously convicted of indecent exposure is accused of showing his privates to a woman and making vulgar gestures at the Eden Prairie Center Panera Bread, according to court documents released Monday.

Officers went to the restaurant at 11:48 a.m. Sept. 11 in response to an indecent exposure report, Police Sgt. Dennis Paulson wrote in the criminal complaint. An unidentified woman said she and a friend were having lunch when a man—later identified as 53-year-old John David Miller, of Jordan—approached from the parking lot and sat down in a chair.

The woman said that when she made eye contact with him he began making a gesture that she thought was “sexually suggestive, gross and inappropriate,” according to the court documents. She tried to ignore but he reportedly continued making the same gesture.

The woman said that at one point, he pulled up his shorts to his crotch area and exposed his genitals while licking his lips and grinning at her, according to court documents.

After that, the woman and her friend went inside the restaurant. They watched the man walk to his car, noted the license plate and called police.

While police were talking to the woman at the restaurant, she saw Miller return to his car in different clothes. When he saw officers, he walked into the restaurant. Officer found him in the bathroom.

Miller couldn’t explain why he had changed clothes, but he denied exposing himself.

He’s been charged with indecent exposure—a gross misdemeanor with a maximum penalty of a year in jail and a $3,000 fine.

He was previously convicted of indecent exposure in February 2007 for an incident in Eden Prairie.