Westborough Sex Offender Caught Performing Lewd Act: Police

WESTBOROUGH, MA — A Westborough man, who is a registered sex offender, was arrested and charged after an employee at Cumberland Farms headquarters caught him in the middle of a lewd act, according to police. The man, Joseph LaPlante, has had run-ins with the law in the past — he has three prior convictions for similar charges, according to the state sex offender registry.

A Cumberland Farms employee at the company's headquarters on Flanders Road in Westborough told police they saw LaPlante, "openly committing a lewd act" while out for a walk along the driveway of the building. LaPlante was at the edge of the woods when the employee saw him, police said.

After police interviewed the employee who spotted LaPlante they made their way to LaPlante's home to arrest him. LaPlante does not live far from the company headquarters.

According to the state sex offender registry, LaPlante was convicted of three separate counts of open and gross lewdness in the past and has a conviction in 1988, again in 1996 and once more in 2017. The 2017 conviction was a result of an arrest where police said LaPlante was exposing himself to vehicles that passed by Flanders Road.