Man sentenced for hiding cameras in UD bathrooms
A former University of Delaware doctoral candidate was sentenced to two years in prison for secretly recording hundreds of women in bathrooms at the school and in Newark.
Javier Mendiola-Soto, 39, will be required to register as a sex offender and is expected to be deported when his prison term is complete, a spokesman for the Department of Justice said.
Mendiola-Soto, a Mexican national who was in Delaware on a student visa, captured more than 1,500 videos of women using bathrooms between May 2012 and June 2014.
He hid cameras in at least 10 locations around the university and in Newark, including at the Hugh Morris Library, Memorial Hall, the Interdisciplinary Science and Engineering Laboratory, and Willard Hall Education Building. He also hid cameras in the bathroom at the Goodwill and his residence in Newark where he lived with several female roommates, according to court documents.
On June 27, a graduate student researcher discovered a hidden camera in the Delaware Biotechnology Institute in the Delaware Technology Park when she went to get a tampon from a dispenser, court documents said.
Mendiola-Soto, who had been seen lingering by restrooms in the past, was identified as a suspect and questioned. The graduate student admitted to placing the cameras.
He was expelled from the university. Women who were recorded were offered counseling by the university.
No evidence was found that he published or shared the videos online.
Mendiola-Soto pleaded guilty in December to 49 counts of felony invasion of privacy. Each count related to a specific woman who was recorded and identified by investigators.
Each count of felony invasion of privacy is punishable by up to two years in prison. Under a plea deal, the prosecutor agreed to not ask for more than seven years in prison.
Mendiola-Soto was sentenced by Judge Charles E. Butler in Superior Court in Wilmington on Friday.
Contact Jessica Masulli Reyes at 302-324-2777, jmreyes@delawareonline.com or Twitter @JessicaMasulli.