Gym employee hid video camera in locker room, prosecutors say
Personal Injury News
Article Date: 10/2/2009 | Resource: MLG
Gym employee hid video camera in locker room, prosecutors say
“Lake Forest man was already facing unrelated charges in gang assault.”
A man who was arrested in August on suspicion of hiding a video camera in a women’s locker room was already facing charges in an unrelated gang assault, prosecutors said today.
David Emanuel Ramos, 22, was arrested by sheriff’s deputies on Aug. 19 at Synergy Performance Health and Fitness Center in Lake Forest, where he worked at the front desk.
Ramos is accused of entering the women’s locker room at the gym on Aug. 18 and attempting to set up a video camera in a potted plant, intending to record women undressing without their knowledge, the Orange County District Attorney’s Office said in a news release. Ramos tried to hide the camera under a newspaper in the plant pot, and looked into the camera several times while positioning it, capturing himself on video, prosecutors said.
While he was doing this, a woman walked into the locker room after working out and saw Ramos crouched over the plant pot, prosecutors said. Ramos quickly stood up and left the locker room, after which the woman checked the plant pot and discovered the camera, prosecutors said.
In a telephone interview today, Ramos denied putting the camera into the plant pot.
“Whatever happened was just a mistake and I apologize for it,” he said. “I deeply apologize. I already apologized to the manager and Synergy and I apologize to anyone that was involved. I made a big mistake.”
Ramos, who lives in Lake Forest, is also accused of being a member of a criminal street gang, prosecutors said.
He and three other men are accused of pulling up next to a car in a Lake Forest apartment complex on March 23, 2008, and throwing gang signs, prosecutors said. A man who had been sitting in the other car with two friends got out and tried to run to his apartment, prosecutors said.
Ramos and his co-defendants are accused of chasing the man and attacking him with golf clubs and a baseball bat, prosecutors said. The man who was attacked is not associated with any gang, prosecutors said.
Later, Ramos and his co-defendants stole a woman’s purse out of the car where the man had been sitting with his friends, prosecutors said.
Ramos is to be arraigned Friday on one misdemeanor count of disorderly conduct for secretly filming another, and faces a maximum sentence of six months in jail if convicted, prosecutors said.
Ramos is to be arraigned Friday on one misdemeanor count of disorderly conduct for secretly filming another, and faces a maximum sentence of six months in jail if convicted, prosecutors said.
Ramos is out of custody on $25,000 bail in the gang case. Prosecutors said they will seek another $25,000 bail at Ramos’s arraignment on the filming charge.
In the gang case, Ramos faces a maximum sentence of nine years and four months in prison on charges of aggravated assault, grand theft and street terrorism, prosecutors said
For more information regarding this article please contact:
Jeffrey Marquart
(949)589-0150
jmarquart@marquartlawgroup.com