A man in suburban Seattle faced disturbing charges on Thursday that he illicitly videotaped members of a high school volleyball team in a women's restroom during a team sleepover.
As reported by KIRO-TV and Kirkland Patch, Steven C. Meeks was charged with voyeurism for videotaping members of the Lake Washington (Wash.) Juanita High girls volleyball team at a Woodinville warehouse during a team slumber party. Meeks, who is 23-years-old, is the husband of the Juanita head volleyball coach.
KIRO reported that the team slumber party took place at a secluded warehouse office, apparently because the warehouse was owned by the Juanita volleyball coach, who has not been named in court documents and does not appear to be involved in the incident in any way. According to a Juanita schoolmate, when one of the volleyball players went to the bathroom early in the sleepover, she noticed a camera in the corner of the room that didn't look like a traditional security camera.
"She said that she looked up, and in the corner, there was a video camera there, and it didn't look like surveillance at all because it was pointed toward the stall," Juanita High School student Theresa Laufasa told KIRO.
Meeks admitted to police that he had installed the illegal camera for his own sexual gratification, with the plan to "spy" on a co-worker at the office on Monday, but didn't realize that the teenage slumber party would take place over the preceding weekend.
Naturally, that unseemly plot hardly makes the teenagers' violation of privacy any less disturbing, just as it is unlikely to sway too many prospective jurors to hand a lenient sentence to Meeks, who has been released on a $25,000 bond.
"Certainly the situation was really a terrible invasion of privacy for the girls," Lake Washington School District spokeswoman Kathryn Reith told Kirkland Patch. "We're very proud of the girls for immediately reporting it and thankful to the King County Sheriff's Office for responding so quickly. Everyone did the right thing."
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