Man charged with using camera in women's bathroom

A Cedar Hills, Mo., man faces a felony charge for a Monday incident involving a video-recording device in a women's restroom.

Frank F. Fuchs, 52, faces one count of invasion of privacy, a Class D felony, after his arrest at the Silver Springs Office Complex at 351 S. Silver Springs Road.

According to a probable-cause statement by patrolman Cary Dunavan of the Cape Girardeau Police Department, police received a call about 11:30 a.m. from the complex about someone inside a women's restroom with a video-recording device. The suspect was being detained by soldiers from the U.S. Army recruiting office in the building.

The statement said a female soldier had been using the restroom when she noticed an odd silver object underneath the stall wall. She looked under the stall wall to see an illuminated red light and discovered it was a video camera, the statement said.

A sergeant and a captain confronted the man when he left the restroom, according to Dunavan's statement, and asked what he was doing in the women's restroom and whether he had a video camera. The suspect replied he had been in the bathroom because the men's restroom was full and that he did have a video camera, Dunavan wrote, and the captain instructed his men to detain the suspect and call the police.

The statement said when Dunavan arrived at the office complex, he spoke with the suspect and learned his name was Frank Fuchs. Dunavan wrote he asked Fuchs whether he had been in the women's bathroom, and Fuchs repeated that the men's restroom had been full. Fuchs was asked whether he had a video camera, and at that time he reached down and removed a silver video camera from his sock, Dunavan wrote. Dunavan asked Fuchs whether he could look at what was on the camera; Fuchs gave his approval. Police then arrested Fuchs.

At police headquarters, the recorded video was found to contain several clips of females using the restroom at the office building, according to the statement.

Fuchs was charged Tuesday and was being held in the Cape Girardeau County Jail in lieu of $50,000 cash-only bond. His initial court date was not known Tuesday afternoon, and no lawyer was listed in online court records.

According to court records, Fuchs was convicted of invasion of privacy in Jefferson County, Mo., in November after he pleaded guilty to placing a video camera in the women's restroom of a grocery store.

He was sentenced to three years in the Department of Corrections for that offense, but court records show he was shortly thereafter released from custody.

Darin Hickey, spokesman for the Cape Girardeau Police Department, said he was unsure why Fuchs was released in Jefferson County.

klewis@semissourian.com

388-3635

Pertinent address:

300 block of South Silver Springs Road, Cape Girardeau, MO