Thursday, April 7, 2011

Voyeur sentenced to two years probation for secret videotapes of woman, girl

An Uwchlan, PA man was sentenced to two years probation for recording a nude woman and a clothed girl at his home April 1, 2011. The sentencing of David W. Geipel, 37, was for invasion of privacy and disorderly conduct, and took place in Chester County (PA) Common Pleas Court under Judge Judge Anthony Sarcione.

According to Kubacke and the police complaint filed in the case, the recordings were discovered after Geipel's wife, Michele Geipel, called a close friend last spring and told her that she had discovered a computer's external hard drive with videos on it showing the friend's pre-teen daughter wearing a bathing suit in the bathroom.

Michele Geipel also told the friend, whose name is being withheld to protect her daughter's identity, that she had also seen on the hard drive a video of a mutual friend who had been staying at the Geipels' house using the shower. The video showed her naked.

After talking to the girl's mother on April 15, Uwchlan Police Detective Phillip Owen obtained a search warrant for the Geipel's home and seized as many as 10 computers, according to Ramsay. Owen turned the electronics over to the Chester County Detective's Computer Forensics Unit, which extracted videos, including those described by Michele Geipel.

Because the girl recorded was clothed, Geipel could not be charged with a crime according to Pennsylvania law. The invasion of privacy charge referred only to the adult victim.  Because invasion of privacy and disorderly conduct is a 3rd degree misdemeanor punishable by a year in jail, Geipel was able to apply for Accelerated Rehabilitative Disposition (ARD) for first time offenders. He was turned down.

Besides two years probation, the cameras and computers used to record then store the indecent images were forfeited to the Uwchlan Police Department. Geipel was ordered to undergo psychosexual evaluations, and not to contact the grown victim, the child victim, or the child's mother.

No comments: