A 14-year-old girl wearing her school uniform was propositioned for sex by a registered sex offender while riding the city bus after school in St. Paul this past December, according to criminal charges.
The girl had just finished her driver’s education class and hopped on the bus at University Avenue and Hampden Street about 7 p.m. on Dec. 6 when an older man on the bus started trying to talk to her, according to the criminal complaint filed in Ramsey County District Court Wednesday.
He asked the girl where she was going and what stop she was getting off at, she later told police. She ignored him, and the man then pulled out a $50 bill and told her that he wanted to have sex with her, the complaint said.
The girl ignored that, too, and eventually exited the bus at her stop without incident, but the incident scared her, prompting her to wait in a nearby Walgreens store to be sure the man wasn’t following her before she started walking home, according to the complaint.
The teen, who has since turned 15, told her parents and two friends about what happened when she got home, but decided not to file a police report at the time.
She changed her mind last month after her mother heard about a similar incident involving an 18-year-old woman at a bus stop in St. Paul in mid February, according to the criminal charges.
The young woman was also offered $50 by an older man in exchange for sex, the complaint said.
The incident was mentioned on the Highland Park Neighborhood Facebook page, and included a picture of the suspect. The teen’s mother showed her daughter the picture and the girl recognized the man as the one who had approached her on the bus in December, according to the charges.
After contacting the poster, the mother and daughter learned that the suspect’s name was Walter Jerome Bradley-Bey, according to the charges, and that misdemeanor level solicitation charges had been filed against him in the case.

The mother and daughter contacted police, and the girl later identified Bradley-Bey as the man who solicited her from a six-person photo lineup, the charges say. She initially said she was 80 percent sure she had the right guy, but changed that to 95 percent before leaving the police department.
Bradley-Bey, 66, was interviewed about the allegations late last month. While he admitted to offering to pay $50 to three women for sex at St. Paul bus stops — all of whom he said he was certain were over 18 — he said he couldn’t recall ever approaching a girl on the bus with the offer, the complaint said.
When asked why he approached women in such a manner, he reportedly said: “She didn’t look bad, you know,” according to the complaint. He also reportedly said he’d been drinking at the time.
Bradley-Bey, who has no permanent address, is on supervised release from a 1997 conviction for kidnapping and first-degree criminal sexual conduct in Hennepin County, authorities say.
Bradley-Bey was charged via warrant in the Ramsey County case with one prostitution count involving someone between the ages of 13 and 15 and a second count of soliciting a minor for sex.
No attorney was listed for him in court records.