Former Rancho Palos Verdes building inspector gets 2 years in jail for secretly recording people in City Hall, Starbucks restrooms

A former Rancho Palos Verdes building inspector was sentenced to two years in county jail Tuesday, Aug. 20, for placing hidden cameras in bathrooms and secretly recording people at City Hall and a nearby coffee house, authorities said.

Andrew Jensen, 50, of Huntington Beach was also sentenced to three years probation, 45 days of community labor and sexual impulse classes for 52 weeks after pleading no contest to 13 misdemeanor counts of unauthorized invasion of privacy via peeking, the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office said.

Jensen will also have to register as a sex offender for the rest of his life, prosecutors said.

Jensen also placed a camera in the restroom of a Starbucks at the Golden Cove Shopping Center. In all, he was accused of secretly recording 63 women and 26 men in 2018 from June 13 to July 5.

Jensen had worked for the city for seven years prior to his arrest. He was placed on leave Aug. 2, 2018 and resigned from his position in September, city officials said.

Jensen also worked as a part-time building inspector for the city of El Segundo for nearly a year in 2013.

Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department investigators were tipped when a City Hall worker discovered a camera attached to the bottom of a tampon dispenser in a restroom, Sgt. Ricky Osburn said, adding the camera was a little bigger than a quarter and it had been wrapped in Velcro and secured to the underside of the dispenser.

Jensen was identified as the suspect through “unique physical oddities” that were seen in footage of himself setting up the camera. His face was not captured.

A search of Jensen’s home did not net additional evidence, authorities said

Had the case gone to trial, Jensen could have faced a maximum sentence of more than 44 years in prison.