A Plymouth firefighter has landed in hot water facing criminal charges for covertly recording his ex-girlfriend and a fellow firefighter in the nude. As NBC Boston reports, Richard Pimental, 31, is accused of placing hidden cameras inside an alarm clock and a wall charger in the home he once shared with his ex, her discovery of a hidden camera in October eventually leading to police involvement in November, as per police reports.
The Plymouth Police Department's investigation, which began at the request of Fire Chief Neil Foley, revealed not only the invasion of the ex-girlfriend's privacy, but also that Pimental's colleagues at the fire department had seen the secretly recorded footage, the footage includes a video recorded on Sept. 20 having featured the ex-girlfriend and another man in a compromising state; furthermore, Pimental appears to have shown and circulated the sensitive content among his peers, as WCVB reports.
Pimental, who was arraigned on January 16, faces two counts each of disseminating photos of an unsuspecting nude person and unlawful wiretapping after police found the videos on his cellphone which aptly captured the nude images of the victims without their consent, he has pleaded not guilty to the charges, and the court has stipulated he must stay away from the victims except for job-related communication while the town confirms he has been on administrative leave since November.
Text messages extracted from Pimental's phone reveal a damning conversation with a friend in which he boasts about the surreptitious surveillance, saying "Oh yeah, and she doesn't suspect it," when questioned about the presence of the cameras this conversation adding a layer to the premeditated nature of the firefighter's actions, attempts to reach Pimental or his attorney for comment by NewsCenter 5 have so far been unsuccessful, and the town of Plymouth has indicated that he will remain on leave pending the results of a third-party investigation and the court's determination.
