Felony and misdemeanor charges have been leveled against a former state parks superintendent accused of recording naked lifeguards in an Orange County beach locker room and sharing the images with friends, authorities announced today.
Kevin Pearsall, 59, of Long Beach, was charged with five felony counts of eavesdropping, 23 misdemeanor counts of secretly filming another and three misdemeanor counts of unlawful dissemination of private recordings, according to the Orange County District Attorney’s Office.
The alleged offenses occurred in the men’s locker room at Bolsa Chica State Beach Lifeguard Headquarters and victimized 23 lifeguards and other workers, none of whom consented to being recorded, prosecutors said.
Pearsall, who had been subject to a $500,000 arrest warrant, turned himself in on Tuesday and was released on his own recognizance with an arraignment scheduled for Aug. 6 in Westminster.
According to the DA’s Office, the case stems from the discovery in July 2025 of a USB memory stick data storage device with a hidden camera in the men’s employee locker room at the lifeguard headquarters.
State parks officials reviewed the content on the device and contacted the California Highway Patrol, which conducted an investigation that revealed Pearsall allegedly “was responsible for placing hidden cameras in the locker room, which recorded both audio and video, and using the hidden cameras to record numerous videos over an 11-month period beginning in August 2024,” according to prosecutors.
“From 2023 through July of 2025, Pearsall served as a California State Parks superintendent, which is a sworn law enforcement position overseeing the management and operations of state parks in the Orange Coast District, including Orange County,” the DA’s Office stated.
Pearsall is further accused of sending images of nude or partially nude men in the locker room to two men and making sexually charged comments about the victims’ anatomy.
“Instead of protecting his employees, Pearsall used his position to spy on the men who worked for him while they were in the place where they should have been the safest and then share those intimate images of his victims,” District Attorney Todd Spitzer said. “These victims had their privacy violated in such a disgusting way, and we will do everything we can to ensure they receive the justice they deserve.”
Pearsall faces a maximum sentence of 18 years and eight months behind bars if convicted on all counts, prosecutors said.