The Governor George Deukmejian Courthouse in Downtown Long Beach.
The Gov. George Deukmejian Courthouse in Downtown Long Beach. File photo.

A 29-year old man was given a three-year jail sentence today for spying on his coworkers in the bathroom of a Long Beach warehouse where he worked, according to authorities.

Roberto Rojas, a 29-year-old Bell Gardens resident, hid a GoPro camera inside a cardboard box and filmed 17 of his colleagues on the toilet or “in various states of undress” over the span of one morning in September 2017, according to authorities.

“What Rojas did was unconscionable,” said Long Beach City Prosecutor Doug Haubert, whose office handled the case. “This created trauma for all 17 victims, each of whom felt personally violated by his actions.”

Rojas was originally charged with 17 misdemeanor counts of invasion of privacy, but he and prosecutors reached a deal and he pleaded no contest in May to 10 of the counts in exchange for the agreed-upon sentence.

In addition to the jail term, Rojas was sentenced to five years of probation, and ordered to attend a year of counseling for sexual-compulsion, prosecutors said. He’ll also have to perform 240 hours of community service, hand over the camera he used and stay away from his victims and the Western Integrated Materials warehouse where he worked.

Rojas had sought leniency in his case.

Rojas was brought to the U.S. illegally as a young boy, and a serious conviction could spark deportation proceedings against him, his attorneys argued.

Should a man brought to the U.S. as a child be deported for filming coworkers on the toilet?

Banishment from the U.S., the only home he’s known, would be an unfair sentence for Rojas, they argued in court papers.

They asked Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Lori R. Behar to divert Rojas to mental health treatment instead of jail under the powers of a news state law, Assembly Bill 1810. The law qualifies a large swath of defendants for therapy instead of time behind bars if a judge agrees a mental disorder drove them to commit their crimes.

Rojas’ defense argued he suffers from an impulse-control disorder, anxiety and depression brought on by childhood abuse.

But Behar denied the request.

In court Thursday, she called Rojas’ actions “heinous,” according to prosecutors.

Jeremiah Dobruck is managing editor of the Long Beach Post. Reach him at [email protected] or @jeremiahdobruck on Twitter.