Press Release
LAGUARDIA AIRPORT WORKER SENTENCED TO JAIL FOR USING CELL PHONE TO RECORD WOMAN IN BATHROOM
Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz today announced that Samuel Rodriguez, 39, was sentenced to six months in jail after pleading guilty to using his cell phone to secretly record “pretty girls” using a public restroom at LaGuardia Airport where he worked in December 2018.
District Attorney Katz said, “In pleading guilty, this defendant admitted to preying on unwitting individuals by setting up his phone to record women using the bathroom. He turned an airport restroom into his own personal peep show. This is unconscionable and as a result of his actions the defendant is going to jail.”
Rodriguez, of College Point, pleaded guilty in September to unlawful surveillance in the second degree. Acting Queens Supreme Court Justice Gia Morris today sentenced the defendant to six months in jail to be followed by ten years’ post release supervision. Rodriguez will also be required to register as a sex offender.
According to the charges, shortly before 9 p.m. on December 19, 2018, a woman entered a one-stall unisex restroom right after the defendant had stepped out. Moments later, the woman heard a beeping sound. She walked toward the sound and spotted a cell phone actively recording inside the paper towel dispenser.
The DA said the victim examined the phone and played back a previous clip that captured video footage of the defendant setting up the phone inside the paper towel dispenser and angling the device to capture anyone using the toilet opposite the dispenser.
Continuing, the District Attorney said, when Rodriguez was approached by law enforcement he responded by stating “I know what this is about and I’m sorry” and further detailed that he went to the bathroom and put his phone in there because, “I was trying to video pretty girls. I was going to masturbate to it at home.”
The investigation was conducted by the Port Authority Police Department.
Assistant District Attorney Shannon Riordan of the District Attorney’s Felony Trials Bureau prosecuted the case, under the supervision of Assistant District Attorney Mark Osnowitz, Bureau Chief, and under the overall supervision of Executive Assistant District Attorney for Supreme Court Trial Division Pishoy Yacoub.