North Texas Daily

Julia Contarelli | Design Editor

James Norman | News Editor

The suspect thought to be involved in a recent series of sexual assaults around UNT confessed to three of the instances under investigation, according to an affidavit obtained by the North Texas Daily.

In an interview after his arrest last Friday, Earl Leroy Thompson admitted his involvement in three cases dating back to February. According to the affidavit, Thompson provided “significant” details in three cases and confessed his intentions to commit sexual assaults.

Thompson was arrested on June 2 on two charges of burglary of habitation with intent to commit a felony. On Wednesday, he was charged with three more counts, and is currently being held in the Denton County Jail on $525,000 bond.

“[Thompson] will have to register as a sex offender if he gets out,” Denton Police spokesman Shane Kizer said.

According to the Texas Tribune, Thompson worked as a facilities crew leader at UNT since May 2010. The arrest affidavit further revealed Thompson worked unsupervised during overnight hours just blocks from the locations the sexual assaults took place.

“[Thompson] is no longer an employee at UNT,” Kizer said.

Photo: Denton Jail Records

The first contact between Thompson and police happened on May 9 after Denton PD received a call about a man walking and running from one end of an apartment building at 1700 West Hickory to the other end. Thompson matched the description and had similar clothing to the suspect.

When approached by police, Thompson lied and said he had left work to go to his girlfriend’s house, according to the affidavit. When later asked about the lie, Thompson claimed he did it because he was scared of the police. Denton PD then informed UNT of the incident.

Thompson is no longer employed by UNT, according to the affidavit.

The affidavit also states on May 3, a victim reported a man standing in her bedroom doorway around 4 a.m. in an apartment complex at the 1600 block of West Oak St. The man matched Thompson’s description, and Thompson fled the apartment after stealing the victim’s cell phone, police said.

The victim told police she left her door unlocked before she went to sleep.

In similar cases dating back as far as October 2016, police found similarities in physical description of suspects and someone knocking on the door.

In the same block of Oak St. one day later, another woman made a report of a man who followed her closely while she was entering her apartment. She said someone had knocked on her door around 5:30 a.m. on April 30, but when she looked out the door no one was there, according to the affidavit.

What brought the cases together were gloves found by a maintenance worker that matched the ones collected in the May 3 case.

On May 25, the Dallas Police Department contacted Denton PD about Thompson, saying he was under investigation for two counts of sexual assaults involving prostitutes in Dallas, according to the affidavit. On May 30, Thompson attempted to open the window of another apartment at the 400 block of Withers Street.

According to the affidavit, Thompson was seen masturbating while looking inside the window.

A notification sent by the Texas DPS laboratory said the DNA recovered from sexual assaults that occurred on Feb. 23 and May were “identical, meaning it was from the same person.”

“We are going to look at anything that could show a link to him,” Kizer said. “We are going to take a hard look at burglaries at that area, at sexual assaults and attempted sexual assaults that we don’t know the suspect.”