Nanuet Man Charged With Performing Lewd Act, Exposing Self In Front Of Kids At Mall

NEW CITY, N.Y. (CBSNewYork) -- A Nanuet man has been charged in three separate incidents in which he either exposed himself to or performed a lewd act in front of children at the Palisades Center mall in West Nyack.

David Chardon, 22, exposed him to a 9-year-old girl at the Barnes & Noble bookstore on Nov. 23, police said. He exposed himself again to an 8-year-old victim on Dec. 21 at Bed Bath & Beyond, according to authorities. And on Dec. 26, he performed a lewd act in the vicinity of a 10-year-old girl at Barnes & Noble, police said.

Chardon has been charged with one count of sex abuse, three counts of public lewdness and three counts of endangering the welfare of a child. He was arraigned Monday in Clarkstown Justice Court and is being held at the Rockland County Correctional Facility in lieu of $25,000 cash bail. He is due back in court Wednesday.

Police said the investigation is ongoing.

In the Dec. 26 incident, police said the girl was sitting on a bench in the children's section of Barnes & Noble as her mother shopped nearby when a man walked up from behind, performed a lewd act near her and left.

Shoppers told CBS 2's Jessica Schneider last week that they were disgusted by the alleged acts.

"It's so disturbing that people do stuff like this," Lou Carretero said.

"I feel horrible for the child and the parents of that child," Jan Degenshein said, "It's an impossible thing to control."

Store officials said that they were cooperating with investigators.

"We take this incident very seriously and have, in fact, taken additional steps to increase security in our Palisades Center store," Barnes & Noble spokeswoman Mary Ellen Keating said in a statement. "We are cooperating fully with authorities and have, in fact, turned over video surveillance to them. We have every hope that this individual will be captured and prosecuted. We want to assure customers that our store is a safe place to bring children to shop."

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