A 22-year-old man is facing misdemeanor charges after police say he admitted to taking hundreds of videos and photos of people changing, showering or using the bathroom “all over campus” at Cal State Long Beach.
Romuloromel Almazan Receno turned himself over to authorities on Feb. 21, shortly after a student reported being recorded while showering at CSULB’s Parkside North Dormitory, according to court documents recently obtained by the Long Beach Post.
Although Receno had fled the scene when the student tried to confront him, he later returned to turn himself in and cooperated with police, according to a warrant filed by campus police in Long Beach Superior Court.
Police wrote that Receno waived his Miranda rights and explained that he started recording people without their consent in 2015, while he was still in high school.
He admitted that “whenever he felt ‘horny,’ he would have the impulse to go into public bathrooms, locker rooms, and other public areas where males were exposing their genitalia,” according to the warrant.
Receno would then routinely use the videos and photos to masturbate, according to the warrant.
Police wrote that Receno allowed them to search his electronic devices, where they found over 700 video recordings and images of men in the process of urinating, showering, and getting dressed.
In addition, police say Receno provided a written statement and letter of apology admitting his guilt and acknowledging he knew he was committing a crime when he recorded “males in areas where there was an expectation of privacy,” according to the warrant. He also admitted to deleting the video he recorded at the Parkside North Dormitory to try to hide it from investigators, police wrote.
Two days later, believing that Receno was still in possession of more evidence, including possible child pornography, officers obtained a search warrant and seized 178.8 gigabytes of electronic data from his iCloud account. The warrant does not describe what they found in the data.
CSULB officers presented the case to the Long Beach City Prosecutor’s Office, which then filed three misdemeanor charges, alleging that Receno, on at least two separate dates, “did willfully and unlawfully” use a recording device in the interior of a bathroom/changing room on campus with the intention to invade someone’s privacy.
Two of the misdemeanors are counts of invasion of privacy, and the third is for allegedly destroying or concealing evidence by deleting the Parkside North Dormitory video.
At this time, police have only identified two students as victims of the crime, according to City Prosecutor Doug Haubert. If more victims are identified, additional charges could be brought forward against Receno, Haubert said.
Receno also told police he filmed in “other areas” outside of campus, but it’s not clear where those are.
Receno, who was enrolled at Cal State Long Beach at the time of the crime, has not been allowed back on campus since the incident, said CSULB spokesperson Gregory Woods.
Arrest records show that he has been free on $5,000 bail ever since Feb. 22. He’s due in court for arraignment on May 4, according to prosecutors.
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