Did he spray toes at library?
A Columbus man has been charged with crawling under a table at a library on University of Cincinnati’s campus, spraying a substance from a syringe on a woman’s shoes and then photographing them.
Dwight Pannell, 43, was booked into the county jail about midnight on charges of voyeurism, assault and criminal trespass, court records show.
In court this afternoon, Pannell was silent and kept his back mostly turned to reporters. His lawyer argued that Pannell’s alleged actions didn’t seem to warrant the charges against him.
Pannell is accused of sprinkling water on a woman’s foot, Pannell’s attorney said, and “how that can be an assault, I don’t know.”
Municipal Court Judge Dwane Mallory set Pannell’s bond at $75,000.
“There’s really no way to explain people’s fetishes,” said University of Cincinnati Police Capt. Karen Patterson this morning. “I’ve been in police work 24 years and I can’t explain it. I don’t know. It would take a psychologist or psychiatrist to explain it.”
The woman, a UC student, told police she was in the Langsam Library on Woodside Drive about 9 p.m. Wednesday when she spotted a suspicious-looking man walking around, records state.
Then, she heard a noise coming from under her table and felt something cold on her feet.
“When I looked down, the person was on his knee with the syringe,” she wrote in an affidavit filed with the court.
She immediately knew the man under her table was responsible for putting some sort of watery substance on her shoes, she wrote.
She ran for help to the person next to her, and he told her to go downstairs and tell security.
“Apparently, she did right thing,” Patterson said of the woman. “As soon as she felt something, she got up and ran away and contacted the police so we were able to catch him. It doesn’t appear there was any other victim.”
UC police arrested Pannell at the library and seized his camera, Patterson said.
He told police he was visiting the library and trying out his new camera. Police found images of the woman’s feet on it.
“He admitted taking pictures of her feet,” Patterson said. “He said he was doing so because it was a new camera.”
They also confiscated the syringe and plan to have its contents tested.
The UC incident was not Pannell's first problem in a library.
According to a July 18, 2000, story in the Enquirer, Pannell was accused of attacking a woman with a syringe at Ohio State University's main library. He was charged with assault and possession of criminal tools. The woman was treated at an area hospital and released.
