Reston ‘Upskirt’ Suspect Pleads Guilty, But Won’t Serve Time

A former Reston personal trainer who was accused of taking pictures of women underneath their clothing at South Lakes Village Center a year ago was sentenced to 12 months in jail last week. He won’t serve time though.

Michael Wayne Edwards’ sentence handed down in Fairfax County Circuit Court Friday was for 12 months, all but four of them suspended, NBC4 Washington reports. Edwards was credited with time served.

Edwards must register as a sex offender, NBC4 reported.

Edwards pled guilty to the crime last May. In January of 2016, he was found guilty of two charges of filming women without their consent and of simulated masturbation charge.

Fairfax County General District Court Judge Ian O’Flaherty sentenced Edwards to one-year supervised probation and six months in jail. Edwards’ attorney immediately appealed the sentence, which resulted in a new case in circuit court.

Edwards was employed as a trainer at a nearby Reston gym in the summer of 2015, when he became a suspect in two Reston incidents.

The first incident was July 24, where the victim 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.

The other incident was Aug. 5. In that case, a woman said Edwards followed her as she shopped at Safeway, and then followed her down Sunrise Valley Drive as she returned to work. He also exposed himself, the woman said.

In the two cases, Edwards was charged with stalking, indecent exposure, filming a person without their consent (three charges) and simulated masturbation. He was released on $2,500 bond last summer.

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.