Police Study Landlord's Hidden Camera; Affidavit Lists Case
for Search Warrant

By BRIEN HEFLER

Tisbury police are investigating whether an electrical contractor
may have illegally videotaped tenants in a rented house after a hidden
camera was found in a bathroom there on the morning of June 27.

Richard T. Lehman, 50, owns the property at 450 Franklin street,
where a small camera was discovered by a tenant, who called the police
after her son identified the device.

"[The tenant] told me she noticed something suspicious in the
floor heat register in her bathroom," said Tisbury patrolman
Michel Marchand in an affidavit filed in request for a search warrant.
"She further stated that she pulled the object from the register
and found it to be attached to the floor by a wire.

"[The tenant] stated that the angle that the camera was facing
when she first touched it was that angle as would project a picture of
whomever was using the toilet in the bathroom," the affidavit
said.

According to Patrolman Marchand's affidavit, Mr. Lehman
knocked on the door of the rental minutes after the camera was found,
saying he needed to get into the basement to inspect the furnace. The
tenant refused him entrance and called the police. Mr. Marchand found
that the wire went through the bathroom floor and into the basement,
where it ran along the bottom of floor joists and into a PVC conduit
running outside to the north, toward a two-story garage, 40 to 50 feet
away on adjacent property. The second story of the garage contains a
rental apartment and Mr. Lehman's office.

Patrolman Marchand was advised by Tisbury police chief Ted Saulnier
to secure the rental and adjacent property, including the garage and Mr.
Lehman's house, at 460 Franklin street, to prevent the destruction
of evidence.

Police said that when first questioned Mr. Lehman, the contractor,
denied any knowledge, but then admitted that he had installed the device
10 years ago to watch a tenant but had disconnected it shortly
thereafter.

"Within a few minutes Mr. Lehman told me he had installed the
camera 10 years ago to secretly watch a prior female tenant. He stated
that he and his friends would watch the tenant on a television inside
his garage," states Patrolman Marchand's affidavit.

Mr. Lehman then showed the end of the conduit inside his garage and
a bare wire.

"With this information and a little bit more we applied for a
search warrant for the landlord's house and adjacent property to
the right [450 and 470 Franklin street]," Chief Saulnier said,
adding that the apartment above the garage was not searched in order to
protect that tenant's privacy.

"We're only interested in what the landlord had
exclusive control over, and we searched that."

Several warrants were issued and served.

Police seized a large quantity of video recording equipment, tapes,
rewriteable CDs, floppy disks and computer equipment. In addition to the
camera found in the bathroom, police seized several wireless cameras,
some equipped with audio and/or night vision capabilities, a
weatherproof security camera, two sonic "super ear"
amplifier microphones with headsets, a miniature video camera with
audio, spools of cable and both digital and analog cameras.

Police also seized more than 150 floppy disks, some in boxes; more
than 20 homemade VHS tapes; a number of 8-millimeter tapes and 140
prerecorded adult movies.

No charges have been filed against Mr. Lehman, who serves as the
assistant wiring inspector for Chilmark and the wiring inspector for
Aquinnah. Chief Saulnier said it will be at least several days before
police are able to examine all the recorded tapes and possibly longer
for the computers and software, which were transported to the State
Police Crime Lab in Braintree.

"Until our searches are complete, we won't have any idea
of any potential charges. We have to find out what we have," Chief
Saulnier said.

Under current Massachusetts state law, covertly videotaping someone
without their consent is not illegal. Michael Trudeau, first assistant
district attorney for the Cape and Islands District, said that a number
of laws could have been violated in this case, however, depending on the
content of the recordings and the recording method. If sound is present
on any of the tapes, they would violate Massachusetts law chapter 272,
section 99, which applies to unlawful audio recordings such as wiretaps.
The law carries a sentence of up to five years in state prison or up to
two and a half years in a house of correction.

Any minors filmed in a state of undress on the tapes would violate
Massachusetts law chapter 272, section 29 A: posing a child in the nude,
a felony with a sentence of up to 20 years and a substantial fine.
Police said that the tenant in the house had two children, ages 10 and
12. The family has since left the house.

Depending on video content, disorderly conduct or Peeping Tom laws
could also be violated. The laws can carry a sentence of up to six
months in a house of correction or a fine.

Eight to 10 past tenants of Mr. Lehman's are consulting with a
Vineyard Haven attorney, Geoghan Coogan, about their rights and possible
civil action. Mr. Coogan, of the Edmond G. Coogan law office, is working
with Brian Mone, of Mone D'ambrose and Hanyen in Brockton and has
met with tenants.

Mr. Coogan did not want to comment on any possible actions until the
police investigation progresses:

Mr. Lehman could not be reached for comment by the Gazette.