It’s worth remembering that when this story first broke about a trans woman in the women’s locker room at Wi Spa in Los Angeles, the media tripped all over itself to side with the unknown person who (allegedly) exposed her penis to a group of women including children. Jazz wrote about the Washington Post’s coverage at the time. Here’s a sample of the Post’s July 2021 article:

A famous spa in Los Angeles’s Koreatown became the latest site in the battle over transgender rights last week, drawing attention from conservative commentators nationwide. A week after a customer confronted spa staffers about a transgender woman apparently disrobing in the spa’s women’s section, protests over the situation turned violent…

The initial confrontation between an upset customer and spa staff happened after a transgender woman — who has not been publicly identified — reportedly used the side of the spa reserved for women. In one video, a person who identifies herself as the spa’s manager asks whether the transgender woman did anything specifically inappropriate, and an upset customer replies that the person’s genitalia was exposed in the women’s section of the spa.

“She was within the women’s section, which, you know, is exactly where she should be,” said Jae Red Rose, an organizer for San Diego Trans Pride.

The spa’s Facebook page warns that “modesty must be checked at the door, as no clothing is worn in these gender-separated areas.” Two customers said they — and two girls who were present — were “traumatized” after seeing the transgender woman’s genitals.

You get the picture. The Pride organizer says nothing happened and the Post is strongly suggesting that this is the fault of the people complaining who should have known better. And it got worse than that. Slate called the whole incident a “transphobic hoax.” Outside Wi Spa there was fighting in the streets over as Antifa goons decided to attack a group of street preachers.

Part 3 Wi Spa. Antifa is out here committing hate crimes against Christians for their beliefs. The cops watch it happen. A preacher was hit in the face with a skateboard and violently assaulted by #Antifa for pushing one of them to stop them from attacking a Christian protestor. pic.twitter.com/d8UYO1M3SQ

— rightwingsavages (@rtwngsavages) July 3, 2021

The protests continued for several weeks until Andy Ngo reported that police had filed indecent exposure charges in the case. He also discovered that Darren Agee Merager had a record and was a registered sex offender.

Law-enforcement sources revealed that Merager is a tier-one registered sex offender with two prior convictions of indecent exposure stemming from incidents in 2002 and 2003 in California. She declined to comment on the convictions. In 2008, she was convicted for failing to register as a sex offender.

Suddenly it seemed a lot more likely that Merager was lying about what happened at the spa. And then more information made it look like part of a pattern.

A judge in Los Angeles County Superior Court issued a second arrest warrant for Darren Agee Merager, 52, on Sept. 8 after Merager failed to appear at a hearing related to six felony charges of indecent exposure in connection with a previous case at a West Hollywood swimming pool. Merager, a registered sex offender in California for two prior convictions of indecent exposure, identifies as a woman, but law enforcement sources said that’s a ruse to get into women’s-only areas…

Sources tell The Post that Merager had been banned by Wi Spa back in 2019 due to customer complaints of an erection in the women’s section, but Merager wasn’t recognized by the front desk in June because they were wearing a mask.

The swimming pool case was separate from the spa case and also involved Merager exposing himself to women and young girls. There were other allegations of similar behavior that hadn’t resulted in an arrest or charges. But in the Wi Spa case,

Today, the Daily Mail reports that after 15 months hiding from the police, Merager has been arrested.

Last Tuesday, more than year after going on the lam in September 2021 – three months after the Wi Spa incident – Merager was booked by LA police for the spa and pool incidents, with a bail set at $350,000. He remained incarcerated Monday.

A biological male, Merager – who said he would fight his case in court before suddenly going on the run in September 2021 – faces 11 charges in total for the pair of incidents, where she allegedly used his status as a transgender woman to access women’s changing areas and show his partially erect penis to those inside…

Merager’s first court appearance is slated for December 30, where she will address the 11 indecent exposure charges leveled against her.

I’m guessing that with 11 felonies to deal with, Merager will be spending some time in prison. Hopefully the media outlets who jumped to his defense without knowing anything are suitably embarrassed by all of this. The original Instagram post that prompted this case seems to have been taken down but here’s a copy complete with some NSFW language.