Man Accused of Exposing Himself to Children in McDonald's Play Area

A Massachusetts man has been arrested after being accused of disturbing crimes against children in the play area at a McDonald's.

Attleboro police say around 3 p.m. Sunday, 22-year-old Joshua Jones, also of Attleboro, touched a 7-year-old girl's chest in the tree house, put playing cards in a 4-year-old boy's underwear, and allegedly pulled down his pants, showing little girls his private area.

Local moms say they can't believe it.

"That doesn't make me feel comfortable at all especially since I go to that McDonald's once a month, bring my two year old," Soleil Couto said.

Police say Jones got the attention of some of the alleged victims by doing magic tricks with playing cards, and that in one case, a victim's father was at the counter ordering ice cream at the Pleasant Street restaurant.

"It's unbelievable, you can't even trust yourself to bring your kids to McDonald's to play. We used to go when it was raining, school was out, you know," Marcy Bourbeau, a grandmother, said.

According to police, Jones' parents say he is diagnosed with mitochondrial disease, ADHD and dementia and believe he's operating on the intellectual level of a 5 or 6 year old.

He's now facing six charges, including two felonies of indecent assault and battery on a child.

Prominent Boston attorney Eric MacLeish says he thinks the charges will most likely be thrown out.

"He's clearly not going to be competent enough if he has a developmental disability of a 5 year old, and secondly we don't prosecute people like this, a basic tenement of our criminal justice system is you have to have the intent, he clearly lacked the criminal intent to do these acts," he said.

A police summary also says Jones is supposed to be receiving "one-on-one" treatment at a state-contracted residential treatment in Attleboro, where he lives. The home is supposed to make sure "... all alarms are activated on entry and exit doors, to avoid having clients walk off the property."

But workers "...were advised by the staff that somehow Joshua had walked away from the house during shift change around 3 p.m."

His parents tell necn off camera that their son's well-being is their number one priority and that they are worried how he'd be allowed to walk away.

The Massachusetts Department of Developmental Services says: "DDS takes seriously the health and safety of our individuals and the community and we are taking all steps into looking into these allegations. Any facility that fails to protect residents or meet appropriate standards of care will be held accountable under state and federal regulations"

McDonald's says safety of its customers and crew is its paramount priority, and that they are cooperating with police.

Jones is back in the state-contracted home until he's back in court later this month. A judge has ordered him to have no unsupervised contact with kids under 16, unless the child is supervised by an adult.

Contact Us