Man sentenced to jail for secretly recording victims in bathroom
WASHOE COUNTY, Nev. (KOLO) - A Sparks man will spend nearly four years behind bars for secretly recording several victims using a camera he installed in a bathroom in his home.
Paul Gardner, Jr., 53, pled no contest in April to five counts of Unlawful Capture, Distribution, Display or Publish Image of Private Area of Another Person. Four of the five terms Gardner was convicted of were ordered to run consecutive and he was ultimately sentenced to serve a total of 1,456 days in the Washoe County Jail.
The investigation into Gardner started in April 2021 after a report that he had a hidden camera in his bathroom and footage of victims showering and using the bathroom.
Evidence also showed that Gardner specifically targeted a live-in employee from South America, the Washoe County District Attorney’s Office reported.
Through their investigation, detectives determined that Gardner had a collection of images and videos from a camera hidden in an outlet switch that were recorded between March and April of 2021.
At sentencing, Deputy District Attorney Jeff Hoppe argued that Gardner deserved a lengthy jail term because his conduct was exploitive, voyeuristic, sexual, and selfish, and that the underlying sexual motive further aggravated his conduct. Additionally, DDA Hoppe argued that Gardner deflected blame by claiming that these victims may have installed the spy camera in the bathroom.
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