Transgender Person Who Allegedly Exposed Himself at L.A. Spa Charged with Indecent Exposure

by Debra Heine

 

The transgender individual who exposed himself in front of women and children at a California luxury spa earlier this year, has been charged with indecent exposure, the New York Post reported Thursday. Darren Agee Merager, 52, is a registered sex offender with two prior convictions of indecent exposure, according to the Post’s law-enforcement sources. Merager is also facing “six felony counts of indecent exposure over a separate locker room incident in December 2018,” according to the Post.

As American Greatness previously reported, several women complained last June, when the biological male allegedly exposed his penis at the Wi Spa in Los Angeles.

Viral video footage of the incident showed a woman angrily confronting a staff member of the spa about a naked man who had apparently exposed himself in an area reserved for females.

“It’s okay for a man to go into the women’s section [and] show his penis around other women—young little girls—underage?!” the incensed woman can be heard saying in the video. “Your spa—Wi Spa condones that?!”

The incident led to months of often violent protests where transgender rights activists and their antifa allies sparred with right-wing protesters. Media outlets characterized the controversy as an example of anti-transgender bias,  or as a “transphobic hoax.”

According to the Post, charges of indecent exposure were quietly filed against the serial sex offender on Monday, following an investigation by the Los Angeles Police Department. Merager told the Post that he’s “been in contact with the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office since learning of the warrant” and plans to turn himself in.

Sources with knowledge of the case but not authorized to speak publicly say four women and a minor girl came forward to allege that Darren Agee Merager was partially erect in the women’s section of Wi Spa. Besides being a suspect in this case, Merager is facing multiple felony charges of indecent exposure over a separate incident in Los Angeles.

Merager, who spoke exclusively to The Post, denies the allegations and says that she is actually the victim of transphobic harassment.

On June 23, several women confronted staff at the Wi Spa in Los Angeles’ Koreatown over accusations that a person exposed male genitalia in the women’s section.

“It’s okay for a man to go into the women’s section, show his penis around the other women, young little girls — underage — in your spa?” the woman asked the staff. “He’s a man! He is a man!”

Using the name  “Cubana Angel,” the woman posted the video of the interaction onto Instagram the following day. The video quickly went viral.

“Cubana Angel” and her attorney spoke at a press conference in Pasadena on July 7. “As I was walking, I noticed something that was really disturbing, something that caused me to feel that I was transported into the men’s locker room,” she said, adding that she was appalled at what she saw.

“Yeah, a man. A full-on man fully naked, completely exposed, showing his testicles, his penis slightly erected.”

She said alarmed women and girls who were in the area immediately began putting their robes back on. She said she complained to staff, but they “did nothing” because California law allows men who identify as female in female spaces.  “We as women have rights to be safe in public spaces and they are being violated by men,” she said.

The video was followed by weeks of sometimes violent face-offs between right-wing and Evangelical Christian protesters at the Wi Spa, and Antifa and far-left counter-protesters. On July 3, after police formed a line to separate the two groups, 40 people were arrested.

Merager told the Post that he’s legally a female in the state of California and the charges against him are harassment who has two prior convictions stemming from incidents in 2002 and 2003 in California.

Law-enforcement sources however revealed that Darren Agee Merager is a tier-one registered sex offender.

The LAPD so far have confirmed few details about the Wi Spa incident. Inquiries sent to the department were responded with statements saying the investigation is “ongoing.”

A warrant was issued this week in Los Angeles County for his arrest “based on five felony counts of indecent exposure in connection with the Wi Spa incident,” the Post reported.

Merager has reportedly not yet been arrested.

“Everything about the Wi Spa was a bunch of garbage and lies,” Merager told the Post. He said he is legally female in California and was in a jacuzzi in the women’s section when he was accosted by “Cubana Angel.”

“She never saw me naked. I was underwater with water all the way up to my chest,” he said.

Merager also denied ever being partially erect around children at the spa, insisting that he’s the actual victim of sexual harassment.

Law-enforcement sources told the Post that Merager is a tier-one registered sex offender with two prior convictions of indecent exposure stemming from incidents in 2002 and 2003 in California. He was convicted in 2008 for failing to register as a sex offender, the Post reported.

In addition to Merager’s new felony charges of indecent exposure, she is also facing six felony counts of indecent exposure over a separate locker room incident in December 2018. Los Angeles County prosecutors accuse Merager of indecent exposure to women and children in a changing area at a swimming pool in West Hollywood Park.

An internal alert from the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department informed law enforcement departments in southern California in late 2018 that Merager’s M.O. was to identify as female to access female spaces.

“Merager claims to identify as female so he can access women’s locker rooms and showers,” the L.A. Sheriff’s Dept. flyer read.

Merager has pleaded not guilty to all six counts and his next court date for the 2018 incident is on Sept. 8. He told law enforcement that he’s transient but was able to somehow pay $150,000 bail in early 2019.

Merager claims that accusations of indecent exposure show a “pattern of abuse” from a state and society that punishes transgender people. “You allow [trans women] to go in there [women’s spaces] and then people simply claim indecent exposure and you’re arrested,” he argues.

Merager said he is working with progressive California lawmakers, like state senator Scott Wiener, to change state law to protect trans people who want to be able to get naked in front of the opposite sex.

“If you go into an area where you’re expected to be nude, there has to be an indecent exposure exemption,” he said.

Merager told the Post that he may file complaints or lawsuits for discrimination after what law enforcement and women in the Wi Spa put him through.

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Debra Heine reports for American Greatness.
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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