Registered Sex Offender on Lifetime Supervision Charged with Sexual Battery

A registered sex offender on lifetime supervision is charged with aggravated sexual battery after he grabbed an 11-year-old girl Saturday in a Public Square parking garage stairwell.

The victim was walking up the stairwell in the parking garage at 101 James Robertson Parkway with her siblings just after 4 p.m. Saturday, when Matthew Lee Harber, 39, started to walk down. As he passed the girl, he grabbed her buttocks and ran off. Harber was identified through surveillance video.

On Sunday afternoon, Central Precinct Officer Dean Ferrari, who was assigned to directed patrols in and around the Entertainment District with a focus on persons wanted on outstanding warrants, including Harber, spotted him walking in the area of Ronald Reagan Way and Peabody Street where he was taken into custody.

Harber was convicted of especially aggravated attempted kidnapping and aggravated sexual assault after he grabbed a 12-year-old girl outside a convenience store in October 2012. He remains jailed in lieu of $75,000 bond.