Charges: MSP employee recorded men in airport bathrooms for months
A man is facing charges for allegedly recording men inside bathroom stalls at Minneapolis-Saint Paul International Airport after officers found videos taken over several months on his phone.
Michael Lamar Maceda-Tapia, 36, is charged with 11 counts of interfering with privacy by installing or using a surreptitious device, all gross misdemeanors.
Police first got a report of a man who was taking pictures under the bathroom stalls in the men’s bathroom below Gate E2 at Terminal 1 at around 9:30 a.m. on Feb. 16.
A man reported that he went in to use the bathroom, he saw there were three stalls and the middle one was occupied by someone else. After going into one of the open stalls, the man saw a black cellphone under the stall that “appeared to be trying to take a photo or video of him.”
He then went to use the other stall and saw the phone pointed at him again. The complaint states that the man “found it odd” so he took a photo and video of what he was seeing.
The man then spoke to police and pointed out the man in the middle stall, later determined to be Maceda-Tapia, when he left the bathroom. He was detained and taken to the Police Operations Center for questioning.
As police questioned Maceda-Tapia, he first denied then admitted to having more than 10 videos of men using the bathroom on his phone that he keeps for himself. Police then confiscated his phone and got a warrant to search it.
The complaint states that Maceda-Tapia admitted to filming men in bathrooms for the past few months and that he had worked at the airport since May 2022.
Police reportedly found 143 videos of men using the employee bathrooms that appeared to be recorded from August 2022 to February 2023.
Detectives then identified some of the men seen in photos on Macedia-Tapia’s phone using surveillance footage.
The complaint states police spoke with the victims and none of those men gave permission to be recorded, saying they expected privacy while in the bathroom.
Maceda-Tapia’s court appearance is set for July 17, 2023.
Each charge carries a maximum penalty of 364 days in jail and a $3,000 fine.