A Romeoville man is a facing felony charge after he was accused of putting a cellphone in a bedroom closet to secretly record a woman while she was changing clothes, police said.
The investigation that led to the arrest of Joel Garcia, 36, began when a woman met with a Romeoville police officer last October regarding a cellphone she found in her bedroom closet, Romeoville Deputy Police Chief Brant Hromadka said.
“The female stated the camera was recording when located and had been placed in a location that would record her while changing clothes,” Hromadka said.
The woman suspected a man in her home might have been responsible.
Hromadka said an investigation and forensic analysis of the phone corroborated the information provided by the woman. After the initial investigation, Judge Fred Harvey signed a $50,000 warrant for Garcia’s arrest on a charge of unauthorized video recording and disorderly conduct.
Garcia was charged with video recording the woman without her consent. He was also charged with alarming and disturbing the woman by placing the cellphone in recording mode in the closet.
Prosecutors filed the charge of unauthorized video recording against Garcia as a Class 4 felony, which is punishable by up to three years in prison if the accused is found guilty of the charges.
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