A Lindsay woman who went with her 14-year-old daughter to a local gym to work out and work on her tan at the facility's tanning beds was in for quite a shock. As the young girl stepped out of the tanning bed to get dressed, she noticed a camera peering over the walls of the dressing area. The girl quickly reported the incident, and police responded to Flex Works Gym.
When they arrived, they confronted 31-year-old Eric McCoy. The suspect denied having a camera, but when officers asked him to step away from the area in which he had been standing, they discovered a small videocamera wrapped inside a towel. Police then asked McCoy if he had been recording women, and he allegedly admitted that he had.
Police looked at the recorded video on the camera and discovered 14 videos of four victims, including the 14-year-old girl and her mother. One victim told reporters that the suspect began recording her as soon as she began to undress and continued until she was in the tanning bed and no longer exposed.
McCoy was arrested and charged in Garvin County with Use of Video Equipment in a Clandestine Recording, a felony. He pleaded not guilty to the charge, which is a part of Oklahoma's peeping tom laws.
According to 21 O.S. 1171(B):
"Every person who uses photographic, electronic or video equipment in a clandestine manner for any illegal, illegitimate, prurient, lewd or lascivious purpose with the unlawful and willful intent to view, watch, gaze or look upon any person without the knowledge and consent of such person when the person viewed is in a place where there is a right to a reasonable expectation of privacy, or who publishes or distributes any image obtained from such act, shall, upon conviction, be guilty of a felony. The violator shall be punished by imprisonment in the custody of the Department of Corrections for a term of not more than five (5) years, or by a fine not exceeding Five Thousand Dollars ($5,000.00), or by both such fine and imprisonment."
It seems likely that since one of the videos taken involved nude images of a minor, he could also be charged with a more serious felony offense involving the manufacture or possession of child pornography. Child pornography involves sexually explicit images of anyone under the age of 18. While secretly recording a person for lewd or lascivious purpose is a felony punishable by a maximum of five years in prison, possessing or manufacturing child pornography is a felony sex crime that carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison.
Learn more about child pornography and other potential consequences of conviction here.
