A 62-year-old Windcrest man is behind bars on a $50,000 bond after officials say he was caught looking at a teenage girl as she changed inside an outdoor bathroom. Joe Anthony Gonzales was booked into the Bexar County Adult Detention Center on Friday, and investigators say a search turned up multiple photos and videos of young girls on his phone.
Gonzales was arrested and accused of looking at a Windcrest teenager while she was changing in an outdoor bathroom, according to officials cited by KENS5. He was booked under booking number B202636053 on a state-jail felony charge of invasive visual recording, according to OpenArrest booking records. Investigators say the phone search that followed the arrest uncovered multiple photos and videos of young girls, though it remains unclear whether additional victims have been identified.
What the Charge Means Under Texas Law
Under Texas Penal Code § 21.15, invasive visual recording occurs when someone, intending to invade another person's privacy and without their consent, photographs, videotapes, or transmits images of an intimate area or a disrobing person in a place where they have a reasonable expectation of privacy, such as a bathroom or changing room, per FindLaw's summary of the statute. As a state jail felony under Texas Penal Code § 12.35, the charge carries a mandatory punishment range of 180 days to two years in a state jail facility along with fines up to $10,000, according to Varghese Summersett.
The stakes for a conviction have grown steeper in the past year. Texas House Bill 1465, which took effect September 1, 2025, amended Article 62.001 of the Texas Code of Criminal Procedure to classify invasive visual recording as a reportable offense requiring mandatory sex-offender registration, according to KCEN-TV. The change closed what lawmakers described as a long-standing gap in the state's sex-offender registration statutes.
A Small City, a Countywide System
Windcrest is a small incorporated city of about 2.2 square miles tucked inside northeastern Bexar County and surrounded by San Antonio, home to 5,865 residents as of the 2020 U.S. Census, per Wikipedia. Because Windcrest has its own municipal police department but relies on the county for jail intake, Gonzales was processed through the Central Magistrate Division and housed at the Bexar County Adult Detention Center on Comal Street in San Antonio, where magistrate judges set his $50,000 bond.
Charges like the one filed against Gonzales remain relatively rare in Bexar County even as they carry serious consequences. Public booking logs show only two invasive visual recording bookings in the county during the 30 days before September 4, representing less than 0.1% of the 4,266 total county bookings recorded in that span, per OpenArrest data.
Part of a Wider Pattern in Texas
Gonzales's arrest adds to a string of similar cases that have surfaced across Central and South Texas over the past two years. Law enforcement agencies in the region have brought felony charges in covert restroom and changing-room recording cases at airports, retail dressing rooms, and other public facilities, as Hoodline has reported. Closer to home, a SeaWorld San Antonio human resources employee was arrested in May 2024 and charged with invasive visual recording after allegedly secretly filming a job applicant, and San Antonio police opened a similar investigation in October 2025 involving a staff member at Holy Cross of San Antonio high school.
Just days before the Windcrest arrest, a 25-year-old suspect in Houston was held on a $100,000 bond in a separate bathroom recording case at the Houston Galleria, underscoring how frequently these charges have surfaced statewide in recent months. Investigators in the Gonzales case have not said whether they expect to identify additional victims or whether a grand jury could bring further charges beyond the current state-jail felony count.
