Friday, June 5, 2026

Witnesses allege seeing Williamsburg man masturbating in public

Roger Lydell Ricks WYDaily/Courtesy of the Virginia Peninsula Regional Jail)
Roger Lydell Ricks WYDaily/Courtesy of the Virginia Peninsula Regional Jail)

Roger Lydell Ricks is facing a serious allegation — one that landed him in jail.

The 39-year-old Williamsburg man was booked into the Virginia Peninsula Regional Jail Thursday charged with obscene sexual display.

In a nutshell – witnesses have alleged seeing Ricks masturbating in public.

Police said officers were sent to the corner of Palace Green and West Nicholson streets at around 11:30 a.m. Thursday on a report of a man masturbating in public.

Officers talked to the witnesses who claimed Ricks was doing the deed “in public view near a tree.”

The same witnesses provided officers with a detailed description of the suspect and the bicycle he was riding on, police said.

Police said they found a man nearby matching the description given to officers.

That man was later identified as Ricks – police said the witnesses identified him as the one they saw masturbating.

John Mangalonzo
John Mangalonzohttps://wydaily.com
John Mangalonzo ([email protected]) is the managing editor of Local Voice Media’s Virginia papers – WYDaily (Williamsburg), Southside Daily (Virginia Beach) and HNNDaily (Hampton-Newport News). Before coming to Local Voice, John was the senior content editor of The Bellingham Herald, a McClatchy newspaper in Washington state. Previously, he served as city editor/content strategist for USA Today Network newsrooms in St. George and Cedar City, Utah. John started his professional journalism career shortly after graduating from Lyceum of The Philippines University in 1990. As a rookie reporter for a national newspaper in Manila that year, John was assigned to cover four of the most dangerous cities in Metro Manila. Later that year, John was transferred to cover the Philippine National Police and Armed Forces of the Philippines. He spent the latter part of 1990 to early 1992 embedded with troopers in the southern Philippines as they fought with communist rebels and Muslim extremists. His U.S. journalism career includes reporting and editing stints for newspapers and other media outlets in New York City, California, Texas, Iowa, Utah, Colorado and Washington state.

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