Videotaping Roommate's Sex Life

[Red November]

Defendant Says He, Roommate Planned To Make Money On Internet

 

POSTED: 3:47 pm HST May 13, 2005

 

HONOLULU -- A military surveillance expert was convicted of violation of privacy Friday for secretly videotaping his roommate's sex life.

 

Much of the video evidence against Airman Jason Turner was indistinct and out-of-focus. It was shot from a remote-controlled, wireless camera hidden in a bedside clock.

 

The man in the bed was Turner's roommate, Joe Tripp. He was videotaped having sex with three different women.

 

Turner claimed he and Tripp set up the camera together to make money on the Internet.

 

"It was a business proposition between Mr. Tripp and my client. My client had no knowledge that Mr. Tripp would be filming himself with women," defense attorney Edward Harada said.

 

Harada said Tripp controlled the camera angle by pretending to set his alarm clock.

 

The jury apparently did not agree. It took them less than three hours to find Turner guilty of four counts of invasion of privacy. That's a felony that can bring up to five years in prison.

 

The attorney general said that the poor quality of the video was good evidence against Turner because if Tripp had been operating the camera from his own bedroom, the pictures would probably have shown a lot more.

 

The case is the first trial since video voyeurism was made a felony. The relatively easy conviction proves a courthouse adage that video evidence is usually good for prosecutors, even when it is barely viewable.

[Eric the Red]

I once had a roommate steal a $525 check and a $20 check from my grandmother for Christmas from the mail and he tried to cash it while at was at the Rose Bowl. Stupid ass went throught the drive thru and said he had aproblem with his account. When they asked him for ID, he sped off. Needless to say, I get a phone call when I was down in Newport Beach and they asked me If I tried to cash a check. I contacted the police when I returned, they brought him but nothing ever happened, I think they screwed that one up.

 

How do I know it was him? I found the envolopes in his trash.