Sex Counselor Caught Naked
in Parking Lot
Meets a Cop Instead of Online Girlfriend
apbnews.com
March 13, 2000
By Janet Prasad
VALPARAISO, Ind. (APBnews.com) -- Psychologist Matias
Reinaldo Jr. was hoping to meet his Internet girlfriend when, at
her suggestion, he drove to a local convenience store wearing
only a football jersey.
Instead, he ended up meeting a police officer who arrested him
for public indecency.
Reinaldo, who counsels sex offenders,
told police that "Michelle" -- who he
met online and had never seen in
person -- told him she would go home
with him providing he was naked when
he picked her up at the 7-Eleven,
police said.
Michelle apparently never showed, police said.
Claims he was set up
"His claim in all this is that he was set up by [Michelle]. Whether
he was or he wasn't, he still can't go to the 7-Eleven with no
clothes on," said Michael Grennes, spokesman for the
Valparaiso Police Department.
About 1:40 a.m. Saturday, Reinaldo, 40, pulled his black Saab
into a parking space at the store where a customer spotted
him, police said. The man walked past Reinaldo's car, noticed
he was naked and called police.
"We got a call from a male on a cell phone that there was a
male inside a black Saab in front of the 7-Eleven in town here
wearing no clothes," Grennes said.
As a squad car pulled into the store's lot, Reinaldo pulled out,
police said. The officer stopped Reinaldo's vehicle around the
corner from the store.
The rest of Reinaldo's clothes were in the back seat of the car,
police said. Reinaldo was taken to the Porter County Jail
where he posted $2,000 bond and was released.
Employer supports him
Lee Grogg, CEO of Porter-Starke Counseling Services in
Valparaiso where Reinaldo has worked for five years, said the
incident has not affected Reinaldo's job status but that the
psychologist is taking a brief leave of absence to "pull himself
together."
"I think that this was an unfortunate, serious lack of judgment on
his part, not deviant behavior," Grogg said. "He has been
under a great deal of stress at work and is going through a
difficult divorce."
Grogg described Reinaldo as "a fine person."
"This really is a tragedy, because he's such a good person,"
Grogg said. |
