Repeat peeper rearrested on similar charges

Bruce E. Weese, 52, a voyeur previously convicted of the crime, was ordered held on misdemeanor video voyeurism charges for taping up the skirt of a visiting airline stewardess at a Bealls Department Store on the north side of St. Petersburg. He also faces charges for the same behavior, but with a 11 year old girl. It looks like he'll just miss felony charges, since a bill making peeping on minors a felony is sitting on the Florida Governor's desk. The incident involving the women occurred April 5.

The victim — a woman in her 30s from Illinois visiting relatives — was unaware of what Weese was doing, but security guards had seen him behaving oddly outside the store, authorities said. Weese left before security guards could arrest him.

Weese also is suspected of going into the women's bathroom at the store April 16 and sliding his cell phone under a stall to photograph an 11-year-old girl, but he has not been charged in that incident, St. Petersburg police Detective Peter Venero said.

Investigators confiscated Weese's cell phone and were putting together a search warrant today so they could view the pictures on it, Venero said.

After the surveillance video was released, police received tips identifying the man as Weese, Venero said.

Weese was charged and pled no contest to voyeurism back in 2006, when his victim was a woman whose bathroom stall he peeked under. He served a year of probation. Voyeurism is a misdemeanor if done less than three times and a felony when done three times or more in Florida. A bill seeks to make voyeurs who prey on kids under 16 liable for a felony conviction is on Florida Gov. Charlie Crist's desk, after the case of a coach who victimized more than 50 of his high school swimming students. In Illinois, voyeurism is a felony regardless of the victim's age.