Skagit County authorities on Monday arrested a 35-year-old Burlington accused of making dozens of obscene phone calls to women in the San Juans over the past two months.

Eric N. Lawson, of Burlington, was apprehended early Monday at his home and then later escorted to the San Juan County Sheriff’s office in Friday Harbor, where he remains in custody on a $5,000 arrest warrant issued in San Juan County District Court. Lawson is slated for an initial appearance Tuesday afternoon in District Court.

Since mid-April, the Sheriff’s Office has responded to complaints of 20 calls in which sexually explicit telephone calls came in the middle of the night by a man, from a restricted or private number, who speaks to his female victims by their name. The majority of those calls came from a cell phone, according to Sheriff Rob Nou.

Nou said that Lawson was arrested on 19 counts of telephone harassment, a gross misdemeanor that carries maximum penalties of one year in jail, a $5,000 fine, or both.

— Scott Rasmussen