A West Grove man is accused of secretly recording more than two dozen women as they changed inside fitting rooms at a Chester County Goodwill. The investigation began after a shopper noticed a cellphone sliding beneath her dressing-room door, then took an unexpected turn when facial-recognition technology helped police identify a returning suspect.
According to NBC10 Philadelphia, 43-year-old Benedicto Lemus Moran is facing multiple counts of sexual extortion, invasion of privacy and related offenses. The initial incident happened March 27, when a woman reported the cellphone to store management, which reviewed surveillance footage and identified Moran as the person inside the store.
The store manager then configured a facial-recognition alert to notify her if Moran returned. When he came back a few days later, the alert activated, Pennsylvania State Police were contacted and troopers found him in the back of the store, officials said.
Police Say Phone Contained Dozens Of Videos
Moran’s cellphone allegedly contained more than two dozen videos of women changing in the store’s fitting rooms, NBC10 reported. Police have not said whether every potential victim has been identified, and the investigation remains active.
Pennsylvania’s invasion-of-privacy statute covers recording someone without consent while they are nude or partially nude in a place where they reasonably expect privacy, according to the Pennsylvania General Assembly. The law also treats each victim as a separate violation in cases involving the same course of conduct, while the state’s sexual-extortion statute addresses coercing someone into nudity or the creation or distribution of intimate material.
Suspect Held By Federal Immigration Authorities
State police said Moran was also wanted in New York on separate charges and had an Immigration and Customs Enforcement detainer. He is currently being held by federal immigration authorities, according to NBC10 Philadelphia.
ICE describes a detainer as a notice informing another law-enforcement agency that the federal agency intends to assume custody of a person who may be subject to immigration enforcement. The detainer itself does not determine guilt in the Pennsylvania case, and the criminal charges remain allegations unless proven in court.
