Wine Country man arrested in peeping incidents at CA tanning salon

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Wine Country man arrested in peeping incidents

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12:08 AM PDT on Tuesday, July 31, 2007


By SARAH BURGE
The Press-Enterprise


A registered sex offender and serial Peeping Tom, suspected of prowling around a winery resort and creeping into a woman's private room at a tanning salon, was arrested Saturday at his home in the Temecula Wine Country.

Daniel Leroy Adams, 46, who has two prior strikes stemming from peeping cases, has been charged with burglary, indecent exposure and disorderly conduct, said Ingrid Wyatt, spokeswoman for the Riverside County district attorney's office. He is being held on $1 million bail at the Southwest Detention Center.

Investigators had initially arrested Adams on July 24 on suspicion of peeping -- a misdemeanor disorderly conduct charge -- in connection with a May incident at the Dream Tan tanning salon on Highway 79 in Temecula, according to a news release from the Riverside County SAFE team. The team, made up of personnel from the district attorney's office, Sheriff's Department and other agencies, is a task force that tracks sex offenders.

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According to Investigator Matt Remmers' statement in support of an arrest warrant, a female customer was in a private tanning room at the salon on May 4 when a man, later identified as Adams, crept inside, closed the door behind him and watched the woman lying naked in a tanning bed for a few minutes. The woman didn't realize he was there until she opened her eyes to reposition herself and saw a man staring at her with what might have been a camera phone in his hand. The man quickly left the room and fled the salon.

Investigators were able to link Adams to the alleged crime through the membership form he filled out. Although the card listed a fake name, the fingerprints on the card were Adams'. Later, the victim and tanning salon employees picked Adams out of a photo lineup.

Adams was arrested July 24 in connection with the incident but was released the same day on $2,500 bond, jail records show.
By Thursday, investigators had linked him to at least two prowling incidents reported since August at the South Coast Winery and Resort on Rancho California Road, the task force's news release said.

According to the investigator's statement, a woman and her daughter were staying in a private villa at the winery on Aug. 21 when the woman spotted a man peering through her window about 6:30 a.m. Although they made eye contact, the man stayed there with his faced pressed against the glass. She called security and when the guard arrived, he found a man at the window. When the guard confronted him, he claimed he was "playing a game with his wife" and ran away.

On March 24, another guest at the winery awoke to find a man who appeared to be dressed like a resort employee standing at the foot of her bed. When she asked what he was doing in her room, he said security sent him and told the woman she needed to lock her doors. When she asked him for identification, he ran out the patio door into the vineyard.

The victims and guard each picked Adams from a photo lineup. Investigators arrested him again on Saturday at his home on the 34000 block of Calle Bella Loma, about a half-mile from South Coast Winery.

According to the investigator's statements, Adams has a history of entering homes through sliding-glass doors and performing lewd acts in front of female victims. He has convictions from 1986 through 1998 for indecent exposure, annoying and molesting children, burglary and possession of stolen property.

Although Adams' photo appears on the Megan's Law online database of registered sex offenders, his address is not. It is not subject to public disclosure because of the nature of his crimes.

Reach Sarah Burge at 951-375-3736 or sburge@PE.com

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