Police: Reston Trainer Took ‘Upskirt’ Video in South Lakes Safeway

A Centreville man who works as a trainer at a Reston gym was arrested last week after he allegedly followed a woman through the South Lakes Safeway and filmed an “upskirt” video of her.

Michael Wayne Edwards, 33, Centreville, works at Fusion360, a personal training gym a few doors down from the Safeway at South Lakes Village Center.

He has been charged with indecent exposure, simulated masturbation and filming a nonconsented nude person, court records show.

Here is what police said happened:

A woman who was shopping at Safeway reported to police that on Aug. 5, a man was following her in the store on more than one occasion.

The victim said as she walked back to work that day, the man, identified as Edwards, followed her as she walked near Sunrise Valley Drive and Lakespray Way. The man appeared to be videotaping and spoke to her. She recalled him to be the same person from the store.

The woman told police the man then reportedly exposed himself to her then he ran away. Officers identified the suspect and worked with store personnel to investigate.

Subsequently, an investigation determined that the suspect had filmed the woman under her clothing at the grocery store, said FCPD spokeswoman Lucy Caldwell.

Edwards told Reston Now on Tuesday “it wasn’t me. I did not do what she said.”

Edwards’ attorney, Lavonda Golden-Williams, did not immediately return calls.

This is not the first time Edwards has been accused of a sexually related crime. In 2010, he was charged with several accounts of second-degree assault after he squirted semen from a bottle on women as they exited a Giant and Michael’s craft stores in Gaithersburg, Md.

Edwards pled guilty to one of those charges (the rest were dropped as part of the plea deal). He was fined $500 and given a three-year suspended jail sentence, Montgomery County records show. His probation period ended in June 2014.