Former Reston Trainer Faces Additional ‘Upskirt’ Charges

Michael Wayne Edwards, a former Reston personal trainer who was charged last month with taking “upskirt” videos at the South Lakes Safeway, was arrested last week on an additional similar charge, Fairfax County Police said.

Edwards was charged on Sept 6 with filming a non-consented nude person. He was released on $2,500 bond, said police spokeswoman Lucy Caldwell.

The most recent charges stem from a July 24 incident. A woman said she was in the South Lakes Safeway and felt someone someone bump her and then touch her underneath clothing while she was in the store. She identified the person as Edwards.

Edwards has an Oct. 13 hearing in Fairfax County Court on the most recent charge.

In August, Edwards, 33, of Centreville, was charged with indecent exposure, simulated masturbation and filming a non-consented nude person. A woman told police she was shopping at Safeway when a man, identified as Edwards, was following her in the store on more than one occasion.

The victim said as she walked back to work that day, Edwards followed her as she walked near Sunrise Valley Drive and Lakespray Way. The man appeared to be videotaping and spoke to her.  The woman told police the man then exposed himself to her then he ran away. Officers identified the suspect and worked with store personnel to investigate.

Edwards told Reston Now in August he did not commit any crime. Edwards was fired from his job at Fusion360 gym, also located at South Lakes, shortly after the first arrest. He has a hearing date of Nov. 24 on the August charges.

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.

Photo: Michael Wayne Edwards, Sept. 6 booking photo/FCPD