Brandon Twp.- A 51-year-old township man is in jail after attempting to capture video of his 15-year-old niece getting in the shower.
The man, whose name is being withheld to protect the identity of his intended victim, has been arraigned on a charge of eavesdropping by using an electronic device, a 5-year felony. He remains in the Oakland County Jail on a $20,000 cash bond, no 10 percent.
According to an Oakland County Sheriff’s Office report, a Brandon deputy responded to a township home at 6:40 p.m., Nov. 19, after the victim and her stepfather reported that the suspect had attempted to use his cell phone to video record the minor in her bed and shower.
The victim had heard a low-battery alarm sounding in her bedroom and located her uncle’s phone in her dirty clothes basket. She told her stepfather, who picked up the phone and found two videos on it, one of his stepdaughter’s shower and another of her bed.
The deputy viewed the videos, which show the suspect setting the phone up to record in the bathroom, with him stepping in the shower to see what the phone would record, even closing the shower curtain. The next video was a view of the girl’s bed from inside the clothes hamper.
The victim’s stepfather said the suspect is his uncle, who has lived in the basement of the home for the past four years. He said he bought his uncle the phone after police took the suspect’s other phone a month ago for evidence in another case.
OCSO Lt. Greg Glover said police were already investigating the suspect for a complaint of him trying earlier this fall to videotape or photograph women at a Kroger store in Independence Township. In the same month, he was caught in a similar act at Bueche’s Food World in Groveland Township. He was on probation for disorderly conduct.
‘He is attempting to photograph genitalia and that is when it becomes a crime,? said Glover. ‘These are pictures he is trying to take for personal gratification… There were several attempts and we have it on his phone and he admitted to it. When someone has an issue like this, they often graduate to something else that fulfills their need or desire.?
The suspect has been charged according to the Michigan Penal Code, 750.539, which states (in part) that ‘a person shall not surveil another individual who is clad only in his or her undergarments, the unclad genitalia or buttocks of another individual, or the unclad breasts of a femal individual under circumstances in which the individual would have a reasonable expectation of privacy.?
‘In my experience, this is the beginning level of something further to come in criminal acts,? said Glover. ‘They usually go to something more? touching or doing things over the internet, up to and including criminal sexual conduct. This individual tried to photograph or video record adult women and a juvenile. If anyone has had a similar contact in the township where you believe a man was trying to photograph you in a store, contact us.?
The Brandon substation’s phone number is 248-627-4911.