Ex-Deputy Accused of Filming Restroom Users

A former Tulare County sheriff’s deputy was accused of rigging a camera to film people in a courthouse bathroom. Manuel Mendez, who worked as a bailiff at the county courthouse, faces up to a year in jail if convicted on two counts of invasion of privacy.

Mendez denied hiding the camera in a locker and aiming it at a toilet in an employees’ bathroom for men and women. A woman using the toilet discovered the camera last month.

A tape found in the video camera shows Mendez in uniform “looking into the camera lens and adjusting the angle and pitch of the camera,” according to a court document.