March 13, 2000 03:58pm
Sex Counselor Caught Naked in Parking Lot
Source: APBnews
by: Janet Prasad
(VALPARAISO, IN) -- 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 on public indecency charges.
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.
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