ST. GEORGE, Utah, May 29, 2022 (Gephardt Daily) — A St. George man is facing 10 counts of voyeurism after police say a search warrant turned up multiple inconspicuous recording devices and at least 10 videos made in public places of victims’ body parts.
The videos were taken in Washington County in areas including parks, car washes, retail stores and swimming pools, and focused on body parts including buttocks and pelvic areas, police said.
“While the subjects were recorded in public, the videos captured would violate a reasonable expectation of privacy for persons, even when in a public space,” says a probable cause statement filed for the arrest of Aaron Dennis Foote, 44.
Charged Friday, Foote faces 10 identical charges of voyeurism by electronic equipment concealed or disguised, a class A misdemeanor.
“The electronic devices included cameras which were discreet or disguised, such as pinhole cameras with battery packs and antennae, and one camera concealed in the face of a wrist watch,” says the affidavit, filed by an officer of the St. George Police Department.
“An analysis of the digital media stored on the devices revealed numerous videos of a voyeuristic nature. Videos had been captured with cameras placed in locations where subjects were captured undressing. Other videos had been captured with a camera affixed low, possibly in a shoe, and then being maneuvered to view underneath clothing of persons in public areas.”
The evidence in this case “leads me to believe that Aaron intentionally utilized a variety of technological devices to obtain surreptitious video recordings of areas where a reasonable person would have an expectation of privacy, and such recordings if known to the victims would have caused affront, alarm and emotional distress,” the SGPD officer’s statement says.
“In the videos, it is apparent that they are being recorded surreptitiously and with a goal to avoid detection.”
A criminal history search revealed that Foote has previously been convicted of voyeurism offenses, the statement says.
Foote’s bail was set at $5,000. Jail records searched at noon Sunday indicated he was still in custody.
