A man with a lengthy criminal record was arrested and charged on Sunday for allegedly following, touching, and exposing himself to a woman at a WeGo bus station in Nashville.
Kenneth Bell, 39, was booked into the Davidson County Sheriff’s Office on Sunday on one felony and two misdemeanor charges: Sexual Battery Without Consent (felony), Indecent Exposure, and Trespassing.
Bell’s bond is set at $30,000 for the three charges.
On Sunday morning, Bell allegedly followed, inappropriately touched, and exposed himself to a woman at the WeGo bus terminal on Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd, according to information from the Metro Nashville Police Department (MNPD) provided to WSMV.
As witnesses intervened to try and keep Bell away from the victim, he also allegedly told the victim that she would be performing oral sex.
MNPD said Bell ran from the scene as officers arrived before eventually being located and arrested in the parking lot of a business on Second Avenue North where other police units were warning him that he was trespassing.
Bell, who was born in 1985, has been charged 158 times during the course of his life dating back to 2003, according to data by the Davidson County Criminal Court Clerk. Bell has been convicted on 93 of those charges during that time.
Last year, Bell was involved in another crime of which he received two Sexual Battery charges.
Sunday’s incident at the bus station adds to the list of recent crimes that have taken place at WeGo sites.
Last week, for example, a man was arrested and charged for allegedly stabbing a homeless man at a WeGo bus station in Nashville’s Edgehill community.
One week before that, a man was shot six times on the steps of the bus station located at Rep John Lewis Way & MLK Jr Blvd for what appeared to be drug-related.
Nashville Mayor Freddie O’Connell has since requested a full safety review of the city’s public transportation service amid the incidents.
O’Connell’s request for a safety review comes as his multi-billion-dollar transit plan, “Choose How You Move: An All-Access Pass to Sidewalks, Signals, Service, and Safety,” would allocate tax dollars to expand WeGo’s services and other projects through a half-cent increase of the city’s sales tax.
The mayor’s plan, as introduced, would add new and extended bus routes and $653 million in “WeGo Essentials,” which includes bus stop upgrades, transit centers, park-and-ride facilities, and garages to hold and maintain WeGo’s fleet of modern buses.
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Kaitlin Housler is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. Follow Kaitlin on X / Twitter.
Photo “WeGo Bus Stop” by WeGo Transit.
