Court papers detail use of cameras hidden at UD

A former University of Delaware graduate researcher who secretly videoed women in on- and off-campus bathrooms did it "for personal gratification" and did not seek out any one woman, according to court documents obtained by The News Journal.

Javier Mendiola-Soto placed the recording "device in hopes of recording any female," he told University of Delaware police during questioning on July 1, according to court documents obtained from Superior Court. He told investigators that he used a recording device he'd purchased online in the same restroom at the Delaware Biotechnology Institute at least five times, storing the videos and images on his personal laptop computer and transferring some to his iPod, records say.

The investigation has grown to include Newark police, who suspect the 38-year-old Mexican national may have recorded women using bathrooms at the Goodwill Store off Main Street and at his Newark house.

Newark detectives received videos Tuesday morning from university investigators, said Lt. Mark Farrall, a Newark police spokesman. "We have not filed any charges yet," he added.

Mendiola-Soto, who was in the states on a student visa, was arrested July 1 on a single count of felony invasion of privacy and committed to Wilmington's Young Correctional Institution, where he has remained. He was charged with an additional 20 felony counts of invasion of privacy on Thursday and held without bail, authorities said.

Listed as one of the authors of a 2012 online article on the reproductive cycle of flowering plants, Mendiola-Soto has since been expelled from the university.

According to court documents, the miniature camera device was discovered about 3 p.m. June 27 by a graduate student researcher, also working at the Delaware Biotechnology Institute. The woman was "removing a tampon from the tampon dispenser when she observed an object in the dispenser chute," police said in court records.

She removed the object, saw it was a recording device and took it to a facilities operator, who notified campus police.

The operator told officers, according to court records, that when the recording device was found, it was "warm to the touch, indicating it was on when discovered."

After plugging the device into a laptop computer, investigators observed: The video starts with the sounds of a metal drawer closing, then footsteps and the sound of a door opening, followed by someone placing the device in the tampon dispenser and "the removal of a hand from placing the device," and finally the closing of the restroom door, police said.

About three minutes later, an unidentified woman enters the restroom, uses the facilities and leaves, police said, adding, "the video runs continuously for 30 minutes and stops."

Investigators were able to capture a still image from the video on June 30 and identify the victim, who confirmed it was her and that those were the clothes she was wearing on June 27.

The victim said she "did not give anyone permission" to photograph her, police said.

In interviewing other building employees, another woman told officers that about two to three months ago, she was headed to the restroom when she noticed the door ajar.

When she pushed the door open, the woman saw a "man with a cane" standing in the restroom and left, police said.

Another employee came forward with another story from two to three weeks ago at the same first-floor restroom involving a suspicious man.

According to court records, the witness said when she walked out of the restroom, Mendiola-Soto was standing outside in the hallway. As she walked away, she heard someone enter the restroom. "No one else was in the area," so she "assumed it was Mendiola-Soto that entered the room, which she found strange," police said in court records.

Officers interviewed him about noon July 1, asking if he had heard about the incident. Mendiola-Soto said, "No."

The officer then showed him a picture of the hidden recording device and asked him if he had ever seen one of those. Mendiola-Soto had a "shocked/confused expression on his face," police said.

When the officer asked him if he had placed the device as "a joke," Mendiola-Soto said, "No, it wasn't a joke," and the officer stopped the interview and read him his Miranda rights, court records said.

Officers then got a search warrant and seized Mendiola-Soto's laptop computer, external hard drive and two cellphones, which were turned over to Middletown police for forensic exams, police said.

Forensic examiners found numerous downloaded videos from two miniature cameras between 2012 and June 27, police said. None of the video files were electronically shared.

They were also able to identify "the original victim," who appears in 20 of the 1,500 video files, each with a different time stamp and "each depicting her in the secured female restroom, where she expected privacy," according to court records.

In addition to the staff-only restroom at the Delaware Biotechnology Institute in Delaware Technology Park, hidden cameras were used in women's restrooms at the Hugh Morris Library, Memorial Hall, the Interdisciplinary Science and Engineering Laboratory and Willard Hall Education Building.

Police said it's estimated that hundreds of women were recorded illicitly by Mendiola-Soto in less than a two-year period – some three or four times each. While only about 40 women have been identified as victims, that is enough evidence for the state Attorney General's Office to prosecute.

Anyone with additional information about this case is asked to call UD police at (302) 831-2222 or Delaware Crime Stoppers at (800) TIP-3333.

Contact Terri Sanginiti at (302) 324-2771 or tsanginiti@delawareonline.com. Contact Esteban Parra at (302) 324-2299 or eparra@delawareonline.com.