Foot fetish suspect: It's all just a big misunderstanding

PORTLAND, Ore. - The man accused of fondling women's feet and legs while convincing them to try on shoes says it is all just a misunderstanding.

On Thursday, 46-year-old Steven Bronson was arraigned on two counts of sex abuse and on Friday, he conducted a jailhouse interview with KATU in an effort to clear his name in the court of public opinion.

"I'd like to make an apology to them," he said.  "It wasn't an act of violence or aggression or anything.  It was, you know, two people trying on shoes."

But detectives say it was more than trying on shoes - that inside a local Target store, Bronson moaned while rubbing women's feet and legs, and even licked one woman's upper thigh.

When we asked whether he had done such a thing, Bronson said no.

"It's hot, and my head - when it's a hundred degrees out there, you know, your head sweats and I think that's what she felt and she didn't like it," he said.

Bronson claimed when his head touched the woman's leg, it was an accident.

"As I was helping her put on the shoe, her knee, above the knee, rubbed against my head, which it was a really hot day that day and there was a little sweat on there, and she became a little bit startled."

Police believe Bronson is responsible for a string of foot fetish incidents from Happy Valley to Medford.

We asked Bronson whether he considered himself to have a foot fetish and he said "Um, no - I should talk to my attorney about that."

We also asked him how many times he had asked women to try on shoes.

"Maybe I had two or three women in the last three weeks try on shoes," he said.  He also wanted to emphasize that asking women to try on shoes is not a crime.

"I don't think that's wrong," he said.  "I don't think I was doing anything wrong. If it is wrong, I'd like to know because I was never really warned that I was doing anything wrong."

Bronson said if he gets out of jail, he won't ever ask a woman again to try on a pair of shoes.