UPDATE 3/7/23 — Stovall pleaded not guilty to his charges on Jan. 4. He is scheduled to have an pre-trial conference at 9 a.m. on May 9.

Original story, published Jan. 3, 2023:

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. — A man who has repeatedly been the subject of several sexual misconduct investigations was arrested Monday, Jan. 2, 2023.

Noah Stovall, 21, was arrested on Jan. 2 and formally charged with three felony counts of first-degree harassment.

According to court documents, Stovall has a history of masturbating in front of unsuspecting women on the street. Court documents show that he has been arrested and charged for similar crimes as an adult multiple times since 2020, less than a year after he turned 18.

August 2020

On Aug. 21, 2020, a Springfield Police Department officer filed a probable cause statement about Stovall touching himself in front of a victim. The victim was riding a bike in Springfield when a man in a red Jeep Liberty drove up and asked her if she wanted to perform a sexual act with him. He was actively masturbating.

The victim began to ride her bicycle away and for a while, the man followed her. When the victim was able to contact the police, she provided them with the Jeep’s license plate number. The police traced this number to Stovall, who was 18 years old at the time.

In a later police lineup, the victim identified Stovall as the man she had seen.

“I don’t remember doing anything like that,” Stovall told police when he was questioned about the incident.

Eventually, this case was dismissed. However, it was then included in a case involving a similar incident that would happen over a year later, in November 2021.

November 2021

According to another SPD report, around noon on Nov. 2, 2021, a female victim was walking her dog in an area that was redacted in the probable cause report. According to the victim, a white four-door sedan pulled up beside her. When the vehicle got close enough, she looked inside and saw a man with his knees near the steering wheel actively masturbating while staring at her.

She backed off and the vehicle drove away. She made sure to note the vehicle’s license plate as it left. The victim gave the number and a physical description of the man to the police. The police used this information to mark Stovall as a suspect.

The victim said she no longer walks in her neighborhood alone because of the incident.

On Nov. 12 of that year, another victim was walking her dog when she saw a white four-door sedan pull out of a church parking lot and onto the road next to her. When she looked inside the car, she saw the same sight that the victim from Nov. 2 saw.

This victim made note of the license plate. It matched Stovall’s.

The police collected Stovall, who agreed to be interviewed at the station. A white four-door Nissan Altima sedan was parked outside with the license plate the victims had reported.

During the interview, Stovall admitted to exposing himself to multiple women and that he has “a problem.” Four to five times a week, he said, he felt overwhelming urges that driving by attractive women while masturbating helped him get over.

He started doing this in a specific neighborhood the previous year because the neighborhood had a large number of attractive girls who would walk around the area.

With this information, police also found other incidents reported through the Nextdoor app, which is a social media app for people who live in the same neighborhoods and cities.

These incidents led to Stovall being convicted of three misdemeanor charges of first-degree sexual misconduct. He was sentenced to two years in jail, but this sentence was suspended and replaced with two years of supervised probation to start Aug. 15 of 2022. Following his conviction, he moved to Ash Grove.

November 2022

In November of 2022, Stovall was accused of violating a restraining order against a former coworker who said he was sending unsolicited videos and photos of himself to her, as well as sexually explicit texts. These events occurred from May to November 2022. The victim said he messaged her on multiple social media platforms and would create new accounts to message her from when she blocked his previous accounts.

The protection order was delivered to Stovall on Oct. 26. On Nov. 4, he messaged her a photo of his genitals and an explicit message. A felony investigation into these incidents and a probation violation was begun.

New Year’s Eve 2022

According to another police report, three female victims were walking near Delaware Avenue and Meadowmere Street in the Roundtree neighborhood when they saw a white Nissan sedan drive up slowly. The sedan circled them several times and the driver stared at them as he passed by.

All three victims said they saw the driver’s hand moving in a masturbatory fashion. The victims got the attention of an older man outside of his house and told him what was happening. The man yelled at the sedan when it passed by again and the driver fled the area at a high speed. Before the sedan disappeared, one of the victims was able to take a photograph of the license plate.

Police connected the license plate to Stovall. The victims told police they would be willing to testify against the man. One of the victim’s fathers already had a Springfield News-Leader article featuring Stovall’s 2021 arrest mugshot and the victims each identified him.

On Jan. 2, the Lawrence County Sheriff’s Department took Stovall into custody and gave him to the Springfield police.

During this interview, Stovall asked to speak to an attorney before answering any questions. He has not yet been scheduled for a court appearance in this case.

Stovall is currently being held on a $15,000 bond at the Greene County Jailhouse. If he is bailed out of jail, he will be put on home supervision and must wear a GPS monitor that tracks his movement at all times.