Registered sex offender charged with masturbating in public places more than a dozen times

HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) -- A registered sex offender has been charged with walking into public places and masturbating more than a dozen times since 2012.

In one of the most recent cases, a 26-year-old woman working at the Catherine Couturier Art Gallery in Upper Kirby said she felt violated after the man sat next to her and started touching himself.

The woman wants to remain anonymous but told ABC13 she was alone at the gallery on Oct. 19 when a man walked in, and she felt something was off.

"He sat next to me, and my back was turned away from him," she said. "I was uncomfortable, I had a gut feeling it was a weird situation. I realized he was touching himself under the desk, so I got up to go to the back and called the police."

"Ugh, I don't like to think about it honestly, if he had put his hands on me," she added.

Houston police charged Clarence Dean Dorris, 43, with indecent exposure. According to records, Dorris is a registered sex offender who has continuously been charged with similar misdemeanor crimes over the years, involving different people, in different public places.

The day prior, he was charged with indecent exposure in a separate case. On Oct. 18, court records state, "The Defendant was reckless about whether another person was present who would be offended and alarmed by the act."

In 2017, court record documents state Dorris walked into the Welcome Center at San Jacinto College, and the complainant was "in a study room when they noticed the defendant sitting in a corner of the library watching the females walk by." It goes on to say he, "unzipped his pants, pulled out his penis and began to masturbate."

In that case, he was sentenced to 90 days behind bars.

"It seems like it's a cycle," the 26-year-old woman who works at the art gallery said. "If he's doing the same thing over and over, something is not working in the system."

Dorris is currently in jail on a felony charge for failure to comply with sex offender registration. According to records, he was sentenced to 90 days in jail. Dorris served time earlier this year for failing to comply as a sex offender.

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