MONROE — A 79-year-old registered sex offender is being accused of watching boys use the restroom at the Evergreen State Fairgrounds.
The incident allegedly happened June 25 during an Evergreen Speedway event. Staff was notified that a man was exposing himself to children in the public bathroom, Snohomish County deputy prosecutor Travis Johnson wrote in court papers filed Tuesday.
An off-duty Snohomish County sheriff’s deputy detained Lawrence Trim. The Duvall man is a registered sex offender who was convicted in 1993 and 1994 of third-degree rape of a child. Trim was a minister at the time he sexually assaulted a 15-year-old boy, according to the King County Sheriff’s Office sex offender web site. He was prosecuted in Chelan County.
He also sexually assaulted another teenage boy from 1987 to 1991, according the site. That conviction was out of Okanogan County.
In Monroe, a father told police he’d taken his 2-year-old into the restroom. He noticed Trim but didn’t become suspicious until a second trip to the restroom about 15 minutes later. Trim was still in the bathroom. While waiting for his son, who was inside a stall, the man saw Trim allegedly watching a child at the urinal, Johnson wrote. The boy didn’t appear to notice.
The man said he saw Trim walk to a second urinal where another boy was standing. He told police it appeared that Trim was aroused. The man left the bathroom with his son and notified staff. They waited up to 15 minutes for Trim to exit the bathroom. Staff eventually went in and accompanied Trim out.
A corrections officer, who was working at an information booth, assisted in detaining Trim. He told police Trim said, “I was exposing myself to the people next to me and I was staring at their privates …,” Johnson wrote. Trim denied being aroused.
The boys didn’t appear to be aware that Trim was watching them. Sheriff’s deputies received no other complaints and no one reported that Trim had physical contact with kids in the bathroom, according to court papers.
Trim allegedly told a deputy he had been watching the boys because he was curious.
Snohomish County sheriff’s deputies referred the case to the prosecutor’s office in March. Prosecutors charged Trim last week with voyeurism, alleging he was spying on the boys for sexual gratification.
Diana Hefley: 425-339-3463; hefley@heraldnet.com.
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