A Planet Fitness employee in Bismarck, N.D., has been accused of using a hidden camera to film customers in a tanning booth.
Layton Kessler, 45, was arrested Tuesday and faces four misdemeanor charges of surreptitious intrusion for filming at least four women undressing. Each charge carries a maximum sentence of a year in jail and a $3,000 fine.
Kessler appeared in court on Wednesday and pleaded not guilty.
A Planet Fitness employee in Bismarck, N.D., has been accused of using a hidden camera to film customers in a tanning booth.Â
Layton Kessler, 45, was arrested Tuesday and faces four misdemeanor charges of surreptitious intrusion for filming at least four women undressing. Each charge carries a maximum sentence of a year in jail and a $3,000 fine.Â
Kessler appeared in court on Wednesday and pleaded not guilty.Â
According to the Bismarck Tribune, a 21-year-old female gym patron told police she felt uncomfortable with Layton's behavior in the past. She found the recording device on Monday while checking into the tanning room.Â
Kessler had allegedly followed the woman on social media and had given her a birthday gift which "included a note filled with what could only be described as a love confession," according to police officer April McCarthy.Â
Kessler reportedly always placed the woman in the same tanning booth and would park his vehicle next to hers and leave the gym at the same time she did.Â
On Monday, the woman "noticed that a speaker was in front of the tanning bed and positioned in a manner where it was facing the direction someone undressing to enter the tanning bed would likely be in," McCarthy's affidavit said. "(The woman) could see an object and pulled it out. There was a homemade object made out of popsicle sticks and covered in black tape that was positioned in a way to hold and conceal a video recording device that was made to look like a key fob. There was a SD card located inside this device."
Police retrieved 26 video files, including five videos in which four women are separately depicted "in states of undress" in the tanning booth, according to the affidavit.
"On several occasions, a man who appears to be Layton is seen on the camera device appearing to position it or turn it on prior to females entering the room," McCarthy stated in the document.
"Bismarck Police Department has kept a log of possible victims that have contacted our department and Central Dakota Communications Center to assist with identification," police spokesman Lt. Luke Gardiner said.
Gardiner told the Tribune on Wednesday morning that "more than 20" calls had come in.
