Accused tan booth voyeur in court

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Accused tan booth voyeur in court
DANIEL TEPFER dtepfer@ctpost.com
Article Last Updated: 12/18/2007 08:34:44 AM EST

BRIDGEPORT — A Newtown man accused of secretly photographing a teenage girl in a tanning room at a Trumbull health club will seek a special form of probation in court this morning. Sean Gordon, 21, of High Rock Road in Newtown, filed an application in Superior Court for accelerated rehabilitation, a program for first-time, non-violent offenders.

Gordon, charged with disorderly conduct and voyeurism, is free on $500 bond.

If granted accelerated rehabilitation, he would not plead guilty to the charges, but could get up to two years probation. If he commits no other crimes during that period, the charges against him would be dismissed. According to Trumbull police, officers were called Aug. 18 to Planet Fitness on Lindeman Drive.

When officers arrived, an 18-year-old female patron complained that she was naked in the club's tanning room when she looked up and saw a hand holding a flip-style camera phone from above. She said the phone was pointed in her direction.
The woman said the phone and hand then withdrew through the ceiling tiles. The tanning room was inspected by officers, who said they noticed a ceiling tile was out of place. On the other side of the wall was a staff room, police said, and a chair was positioned against the wall separating the two rooms.

Deborah Barton, the club manager, later reviewed a surveillance videotape of the area outside the staff room and allegedly saw Gordon go into the room about the time the teen claimed to have seen the phone protruding through the ceiling tiles, police said.

Police said they questioned Gordon on Aug. 21, and while he admitted peering into the ceiling area between the tanning and staff rooms, he denied photographing the woman. He claimed he was examining electrical work that had been done earlier, and had used the light on his phone for illumination, police said.

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