Man arrested in 2 restroom peeping cases
A registered FAIRBORN — sex offender with 30 voyeurism convictions in the Dayton area is accused of looking under the bathroom stall dividers inside a women’s restroom on the Wright State University campus and at an Englewood Kroger store.
Harold Rimblert III, 39, of Harrison Twp., was arraigned Monday in Fairborn Municipal Court for voyeurism and trespassing, both misdemeanors. His bail was set at $10,000.
Rimblert was arrested Friday on a warrant for the WSU case at Kettering Municipal Court, where he is on probation for a prior conviction.
Campus police were called around 12:45 p.m. Nov. 10, 2022, to Rike Hall, an academic building, on a report of a man looking under the stall walls in a second-floor women’s restroom, according to a statement of facts filed in Fairborn Municipal Court.
Rimblert was identified through security video footage.
“Mr. Rimblert is (barred) from the university and has been since June of 2012. Mr. Rimblert was also arrested in 2017 for criminal trespass at the university,” the record said.
Rimblert also has a voyeurism case pending in Vandalia Municipal Court for an offense reported in October 2022 at an Englewood grocery store.
Officers responded around 2:15 p.m. Oct. 27, 2022, to Kroger at 885 Union Blvd. to a report of a suspicious man in the woman’s restroom. A customer told police “that when she exited the stall she observed Rimblert crouched down by the handicapped stall . ... ,” according to an Englewood Police Department report.
The woman said there were two other people in the stalls at the time, and that she immediately reported him to a Kroger employee.
Rimblert, who was standing at the service center when police arrived, initially said he was not in the women’s restroom. However, he later said he was there, but only to use the restroom. He also admitted he was on probation for a previous voyeurism offense, the report stated.
In addition to the two pending cases, Rimblert has at least 30 convictions in voyeurism cases between 2004 and 2022 in Dayton, Fairborn, Kettering, Miamisburg, Montgomery County and Vandalia Municipal Courts, records show.
He is a designated Tier III sex offender, which requires him to register his address with his local sheriff ’s office every 90 days for life.
The highest level charge a repeat offender of voyeurism can face in Ohio is a second-degree misdemeanor, punishable by up to 90 days in jail and a maximum $750 fine.
State Sen. Niraj Antani, R-Miami Twp., introduced a bill in 2021 to increase the penalty for voyeurism, but it never made it out of an Ohio Senate committee. He said on Monday that he plans to reintroduce the bill.
“Voyeurism is the only sex-related crime in Ohio where the penalty does not progressively escalate with subsequent offenses. This is wrong and must be fixed,” Antani said.
“As we’ve seen in the Dayton area, repeat offenders simply aren’t punished to the extent where they should be.”
Rimblert is due Wednesday for a pre-sentencing report in Vandalia Municipal Court and on Feb. 16 in Fairborn Municipal Court.
No attorney is listed in connection to the WSU case. A message was sent for comment to a public defender representing him in the Englewood case.
Rimblert remains held in the Greene County Jail.