A 62-year-old registered sex offender is now facing serious new charges after a homeless man accused him of sexual assault and secretly recording him without consent.
The man at the center of the case, Danny Lee Weddle, is wanted for sexual assault and invasive visual recording. According to the court records, the case began with what the victim thought was a simple act of kindness.
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The victim, a 26-year-old man identified in documents only as J.J., told investigators he was living under a bridge on the East Freeway when he met Weddle. Weddle had been handing out cigarettes and small items to people experiencing homelessness. Over time, J.J. said, the two started staying together at a motel in Channelview.
But everything changed during a traffic stop on April 26.
A deputy with the Precinct 3 Constable’s Office pulled J.J. over near the 15400 block of the East Freeway. During a consensual search of the car, deputies found a checkbook and Social Security card belonging to Weddle. When they asked J.J. about it, court documents say he got visibly shaken and told deputies that Weddle had raped him.
That’s when things took a shocking turn.
J.J. told deputies he had recently found Weddle’s SIM card and put it in his phone. He shared that he had stayed at a Channelview hotel with Weddle for the past few nights. That’s how he discovered a photo of himself asleep and exposed—and a video that appeared to show Weddle performing a sexual act on him while he was unconscious. J.J. said he had been high on synthetic marijuana, or “Kush,” at the time, and made it clear he never gave consent.
J.J. told authorities he was angry about the video because he is not gay.
The Harris County Sheriff’s Office contacted Weddle. According to court documents, Weddle admitted he knew J.J., calling their relationship a “friendship” that he felt “should have been a dating relationship.”
Weddle also admitted to recording J.J. in the shower, saying he thought there was “implied consent.”
Investigators say Weddle acknowledged knowing about the images and videos found on his hard drive and SD card, which he let authorities search. When told about the video showing the alleged sexual act, he reportedly said it might’ve happened once, while J.J. was asleep and high.
This isn’t Weddle’s first run-in with the law. Back in 2022, he pleaded guilty to invasive visual recording after he was caught trying to film a man in a Home Depot bathroom on the Gulf Freeway. The victim noticed a phone being slid under the stall and knocked it away before it could record. Weddle got 180 days in state jail—serving 179 of them.
Now, Weddle is facing two new felony charges: sexual assault and invasive visual recording.
He’s currently wanted in Harris County. If you know where he is, authorities urge you to contact law enforcement.
