Lawyers: Restaurant owner used shoe camera to film employees

FRANKFORT, Ill. (AP) — The owner of three suburban Chicago restaurants who is criminally charged with secretly filming up the skirts of female employees may have used a camera in his shoe to make nearly 2,000 videos, attorneys said this week.

The allegations against Michael Papandrea, 59, of Frankfort, were were included in a news release by attorneys who filed a lawsuit in Cook County Circuit Court on behalf of eight women and girls who once worked for Papandrea.

A hard drive seized by authorities last year contained more than 24,000 recently deleted covert videos and photographs up the skirts of young women, prosecutors in Papandrea’s criminal case allege. The Chicago Tribune reported that attorney David. A. Axelrod, who filed the suit, alleges that 2,000 videos came from a hidden shoe web came and others came from a camera positioned over a toilet.

Last March, Illinois State Police seized electronics and video evidence at Papandrea’s Frankfort restaurant, Parmesans Wood Stone Pizza. In July, he was charged with 12 felony counts of taking video under and through clothing of minor girls and young women.

Papandrea couldn’t be reached for comment because his phone does not accept incoming calls.

The state police said the investigation is continuing.