High Point Walmart exposure case adds charges against repeat offender

A High Point Walmart became the latest scene in a string of public exposure cases that police and court records say have followed Noree Staton across the city. The 22-year-old was charged after officers said he exposed himself in the store’s toy aisle to a teen who was with an adult, a case that now includes one misdemeanor indecent exposure count and one felony indecent exposure count involving a minor.

For store employees and shoppers, especially families moving through a busy retail aisle, the allegation raises a blunt public-safety question: what happens when the same kind of behavior keeps resurfacing in places where children are present? Court records show Staton already had multiple indecent exposure convictions dating back to 2023, which is why prosecutors described him as a repeat offender and why the new charges have drawn attention well beyond a single arrest.

The allegations in the Walmart case are part of a much longer record in High Point. Earlier reporting from 2023 said Staton was back in jail for the ninth time in about six months, and that judges had already called him a threat to the community. WFMY News 2 reported he had been arrested after an incident at a High Point apartment complex pool area, and later reported he had been arrested nine times within six months for peeping and touching himself inappropriately in public, including an incident near a Chick-fil-A on N. Main Street where witnesses said he was near a mother and young children. By November 2023, he had also been banned from more than a dozen businesses in High Point.

Staton’s mother was in court and told the judge her son has mental-health issues and needs treatment. The judge ordered a mental-health evaluation before the next hearing, appointed a public defender and denied bond, saying Staton was a danger to the community. The next hearing is scheduled for June, keeping the case active as police and prosecutors continue to confront the same pattern in a city where the complaints have played out in parking lots, apartment amenities and retail stores.

North Carolina law adds another layer to the case. State statute makes indecent exposure in the presence of a minor a Class H felony when the conduct meets the legal requirements, which helps explain why the new Walmart case includes a felony count tied to a minor. A legislative bill summary from the North Carolina General Assembly also shows lawmakers have considered creating a separate habitual indecent exposure to minors offense, a sign that repeat cases like Staton’s have become a policy concern as well as a law-enforcement one.

Guilford County’s broader court system has shifted to more digital record-keeping since its eCourts transition in April 2024, making repeat cases easier to trace across hearings and filings. For High Point, the challenge remains the same: keeping stores, workers and families safer when the same allegations keep returning to the same public spaces.