A man jailed and accused in a New Year’s Day attack on a 74-year-old woman on a Burnsville park trail has been charged in three earlier indecent exposure incidents and is a suspect in a fourth.
Dashawn Jawaun Newton (Courtesy of the Dakota County Sheriff’s Office)
Law enforcement had been investigating the four incidents before the Jan. 1 attack, in which 23-year-old Dashawn Jawaun Newton of Burnsville allegedly grabbed the woman from behind on a trail near Crystal Lake, put his gloved hand over her mouth and told her that he had a knife and not to scream.
The woman fought Newton, who had thrown her to the ground and at one point kneeled on her, according to the Jan. 7 criminal complaint charging him with false imprisonment, threats of violence and fifth-degree assault. Newton eventually fled after asking about her husband.
The latest charges against Newton, filed Monday by the Dakota County Attorney’s Office, allege he followed a Lakeville woman home from a Walmart just after 11 p.m. Dec. 16, then entered her attached garage, exposed himself and masturbated in front of her.
“Victim told the male to leave before she entered her residence and called 911,” said the complaint charging Newton with first-degree burglary and indecent exposure.
Police obtained a warrant to search the historical data on Newton’s cellphone, which was seized when he was arrested Jan. 5 in the New Year’s Day attack. Location data showed his cellphone was in the area of the Lakeville Walmart and the victim’s home.
Walmart video surveillance showed Newton park his black Mercedes SUV next to the victim’s SUV and later walk by her at a self-checkout line. He left the store before her, then drove out of the parking lot after she did.
According to a Monday bail request filing in the case, Newton is also a suspect in a separate indecent exposure incident that occurred the next day, pending testing of evidence found outside of a home.
Meanwhile, city of Burnsville prosecutors filed two cases Thursday alleging indecent exposure for late-night incidents outside the same Burnsville home near Crystal Lake on Oct. 31 and Nov. 17. In both incidents, Newton was caught on Ring video doorbell recordings masturbating, the complaints said.
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Surveillance recordings at nearby apartment buildings the day of the park trail attack helped lead police to Newton. He told investigators the woman approached him after seeing him urinating in the snow and that he then pushed her, causing her to fall to the ground.
Confronted by investigators about the earlier indecent exposure incidents, Newton said they were a prank and then said “he knew what he was doing was wrong and he prayed to God to take away these desires he was having, of wanting to see people’s reactions to him exposing himself,” the complaints read.
Newton remained jailed Tuesday in lieu of $120,000 bail ahead of a Feb. 5 court appearance. Newton’s attorney Marcus Almon declined to comment on the charges when reached by phone Tuesday.
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