WILLMAR -- Jesus Gabriel "Jesse" Rivera, 25, of Willmar, was arrested on new criminal charges early Thursday morning, just hours after he had been released from a Minnesota Corrections Facility and while he was still wearing prison-issued clothing.
Rivera was arraigned Friday in Kandiyohi County District Court on four misdemeanor charges of damage to property, tampering with a motor vehicle, disorderly conduct and indecent exposure. Judge Michael J. Thompson set bail at $1,000, but also ordered Rivera held until a probation violation hearing Monday. He is currently on probation as part of his sentence on a felony charge of interfering with privacy for a March 17 incident, which happened just four hours after he was released from the county jail.
According to police reports on the new charges, law enforcement was called around 4:20 a.m. Thursday to a home along Fourth Street Southeast in Willmar. A woman said she saw a man urinating in her driveway and that he rode away on a bicycle.
A Willmar police officer and two Kandiyohi County sheriff's deputies responded and located a man matching the description a short distance away. The woman told officers she was getting ready for work and saw the man -- identified as Rivera -- in the driveway. She said she saw Rivera the day before at a nearby business, that he was lurking around her vehicle and that she didn't know him.
Rivera allegedly told officers he had to urinate, so he stopped and did so in the driveway. He showed the officers the spot he urinated on. He said he saw the woman the day before, but at a different local business. He also told the officers he had been released Wednesday from the prison in Lino Lakes. He was arrested and taken to the county jail on the disorderly conduct and indecent exposure charges.
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The other charges were filed after a Willmar police officer was called to a downtown business around 7 a.m. Thursday to investigate damage to a vehicle. A pickup's windshield had been smashed by a rock or brick. Employees at the business reviewed security video that showed a man, immediately recognized by the officer as Rivera, pick up a brick, move out of the camera range, move back into the camera range, pick up some rocks and then run away.
In the report, the officer noted windows at another downtown business were smashed with rocks that same evening. During an interview, Rivera denied being in the area. He said he was at home at the time shown on the video.
