STUART, Fla. — A 75-year-old Stuart man is accused of using his pets to lure children to his home, where he exposed himself to an 11-year-old girl last year, according to the Martin County Sheriff's Office.
Alberto Nunez-Arias was arrested Wednesday on one count of lewd and lascivious exhibition.
According to a probable cause affidavit, Nunez-Arias lives alone at the home on Madrid Street with a bunch of dogs.
It turns out that the girl's family bought a puppy from Nunez-Arias, so the dog got out of her home and went to his.
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While the girl was searching for her dog, Nunez-Arias told her that the "dog was in his bedroom playing with the other dogs and she could go get it."
As she was retrieving the dog, Nunez-Arias "started touching her around her chest, shoulders and the side of her stomach and then gave her a kiss on her cheek."
He then pulled down his pants and showed her "his disgusting body part," telling her to touch it, the girl later told Detective Christine Polizzi.
The girl heard her mother yelling for her and got away before anything could happen, but as she was leaving, Nunez-Arias warned her not to tell anyone.
"He said, 'If you tell anyone, I will kill your father,'" Chief Deputy John Budensiek told reporters during a news conference Thursday.
WATCH: Chief Deputy John Budensiek speaks about 'psychopathic pervert'
She kept it a secret until a recent church gathering, at which time an employee spoke with the girl and then notified law enforcement.
Deputies noticed "a lot of animals there" and called animal control officers to retrieve them, Budensiek said. As of Thursday, 28 animals had been retrieved – mostly dogs, but also cats and chickens.
During an interview with detectives, Nunez-Arias initially denied the incident, but he later admitted that his pants could have fallen down on accident while he was drunk.
Budensiek said Nunez-Arias "used these puppies to get other kids, other children, to come to that trailer, play with the puppies, where he could advance his perverted behavior."
Deputies were asking for the public's help finding other possible victims.
Budensiek called Nunez-Arias a "psychopathic pervert" and a "despicable human being" who was acting as a sort of "backyard puppy dealer."
"He's been in the neighborhood for 14 years," Budensiek said. "There could be victims that are adults now. We don't know that."
