Prosecutors charged a former Natrona County reserve deputy with seven felonies in connection with allegations that he secretly videotaped couples engaged in sexual activities inside their Evansville home.
Police say Alan Brooks, 65, wired a Curtis Street home in Evansville with elaborate recording devices and spent the past four years videotaping its residents. Court documents refer to Brooks as the property’s “manager and/or landlord.”
Authorities have confiscated hundreds of incriminating recordings, as well as “multiple hidden cameras” and “recording devices,” according to an affidavit from the case.
Brooks made his initial appearance in Natrona County Circuit Court on Friday. Prosecutors charged him with one count of intercepting electronic communications and six counts of voyeurism.
The Casper resident faces the possibility of 17 years behind bars if convicted of all charges.
Judge Michael Patchen set bond at $10,000.
Brooks told Patchen he was employed with the U.S. Department of Agriculture. At the time the crimes are alleged to have occurred, however, Brooks was also a reserve deputy for the Natrona County Sheriff’s Office. He had served in that capacity for 20-plus years.
Reached Friday afternoon, Sheriff Mark Benton said Brooks was removed from reserve deputy status on Dec. 18 — the day of his arrest. The sheriff declined to comment on the case further.
The investigation into Brooks began on Dec. 17, when a 19-year-old female resident of the house on Curtis Street told Evansville police she had discovered several holes drilled into the ceiling in the home’s bathroom and living room. The woman told police her 26-year-old boyfriend and her had then found “closed-circuit television cameras and recording equipment” in the attic, according to the affidavit.
Police say that while the couple was trying to enter a boarded-up garage at the residence, Brooks showed up and asked what they were doing.
After telling Brooks what they had found, the couple, along with a male friend, ultimately detained him and waited on authorities to arrive. While waiting, Brooks reportedly told the couple and their friend, “Just kill me,” according to the affidavit.
Investigators say that while executing a search warrant on the Curtis Street home early the next morning, they discovered several hundred VHS recordings. At least one of the tapes showed the house’s female occupant and her boyfriend engaged in sexual activity. Another showed the woman showering.
Authorities say a DVD confiscated showed the home’s two previous occupants engaged in sexual activity.
According to the affidavit, police also found a “logging/tally system very similar to an accountant’s book,” during the search of the home. The book seemed to be a who-what-when-where tally of sexual activities that had been secretly recorded, according to the affidavit.
Police also searched Brooks’ residence on West Micro Road in Casper on Dec. 18. That search, authorities say, revealed video recordings of a female bathing in the home’s bathtub. After being contacted by police, the woman in the video said she had “house-sat” for Brooks in late 2008.
In all, authorities say they found secret video recordings of six adults. None of the people in any of the recordings said they had given anyone permission to record them.
Investigators say they discovered printed e-mails that seemed to indicate Brooks is, or has been, a member of a Web site that “reveals that it promotes the downloading, uploading and viewing of still and video images of adults without their consent and/or knowledge,” the affidavit states.
According to the Natrona County Detention Center’s automated line, Brooks remained in jail Friday evening.
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