Battle Ground man accused of recording woman in bathroom

A Battle Ground man is accused of installing a video camera in a bathroom at his residence to secretly record a female roommate.

Troy D. Hall, 55, appeared in custody Thursday in Clark County Superior Court on suspicion of four counts of voyeurism. Judge Daniel Stahnke granted Hall supervised release, and arraignment was scheduled for July 30, according to court documents.

A friend of the victim contacted a sergeant with the Vancouver Police Department Digital Evidence Cybercrime Unit to report the incident, according to an affidavit of probable cause. In late June, the sergeant spoke with the victim and her boyfriend, who also lived at the residence, 11916 N.E. 189th St., at the time.

On April 30, the boyfriend was shown a video from Hall’s phone of his girlfriend, 20, using a bathroom at the house, according to the affidavit. The video appeared to have been taken with a hidden camera and showed the woman in various stages of nudity, the affidavit said.

When the woman viewed the video herself, she “fled the house traumatized,” according to the affidavit. When her boyfriend confronted Hall, he denied installing the camera, suggesting an unknown person must have placed it and somehow put in on his phone, the affidavit said.

When police served a search warrant July 11 on Hall’s car and the house, no hidden camera was located, according to the affidavit. Later, though, a forensic examination of his phone uncovered more than 30 deleted, cached images from videos inside the bathroom, the affidavit said.

Time stamps from the camera are dated between January and May, according to the affidavit. The camera was also found to be network-based, which is viewable over the internet without a media card.

At least four of the images showed the woman in differing stages of nudity, according to the affidavit.

A girl, 14, regularly used the same bathroom, likely exposing her to the camera, according to the affidavit. Two computers seized during the search of Hall’s residence have yet to be forensically analyzed for additional evidence, the affidavit said.