Free Thought Project – by Matt Agorist
Bismarck, ND — Imagine for a moment that you are a teen girl about to get in the shower only to look up and find a camera spying on you in the bathroom. Your first thought would likely be fear, followed by anger, followed by the desire to hold the person accountable by going to the police. For one young girl in North Dakota, that is exactly what happened. However, it was not as easy to go to the police afterward as the person who allegedly put the camera in her bathroom — was a cop.
According to court documents filed last month, a Mandan police officer set up a camera in the exhaust fan of a bathroom to record a young girl getting in and out of the shower. The person alleged to have put the camera in the fan is 45-year-old Scott Warzecha. Warzecha was the main suspect because the camera in the fan was on a cellphone that belonged to the cop.
According to the Morton County Sheriff’s Office, the girl found the camera after a shower and when she looked on the phone, she found multiple videos of herself showering. The minor told deputies when they reviewed the 15-minutes of video, they could see themselves undressing and getting in and out of the shower.
The videos spanned from October to November. Investigators say they located the exhaust fan in question and noticed that a notch had been cut out to create a window where the camera could fit. There was also dried blood next to the fan, indicating that Warzecha could have cut his hand while hiding the camera.
Investigators have since requested a search warrant for Warzecha’s DNA to compare it to the blood found on the fan, as well as a warrant for his phone.
Warzecha was charged with felony sex crimes against a child — one count of using a minor in a sexual performance and two counts of surreptitious intrusion. If convicted of the most serious charge, Warzecha faces the possibility of 20 years behind bars.
The alleged child predator cop was also fired after the videos were discovered. Naturally, his attorney says Warzecha is a good person who is innocent.
“Mr. Warzecha was a veteran officer with the Mandan Police Department, and I worked with him a number of times over the years,” defense attorney Justin Vinje said. “He always struck me as a dedicated professional, and I believe that it is very important for us to remember the presumption of innocence here.”
After his arrest, a judge granted him bail at just $5,000 and also allowed him to leave town.
“His plans, if he is able to make bail is to live in the eastern part of the state which, I think under the circumstances would be the best here anyways,” said Vinje.
In a move that tends to imply that he is guilty, after hearing the news that he was being investigated, Warzecha reportedly said he was going to commit suicide.
As the Bismarck Tribune reports, the Morton County Sheriff’s Office responded to a 911 call stating Warzecha was threatening to harm himself, according to an affidavit from North Dakota Bureau of Criminal Investigation Special Agent Timothy Helmer.
However, he was taken into custody before he was able to do anything.
Oddly enough, this is not the first time TFTP has reported on cops hiding cameras in bathrooms to spy on children.
As we previously reported, officer David Cerna of the Chesterfield police department was arrested for recording an underage boy using the bathroom with a hidden camera that he placed in a Mobile on the Run gas station, among other things. He would then upload the videos to a porn site online. He also detained and searched a child victim he had previously recorded.
This despicable violation happened to be caught because of a man who said he clicked on a banner that took him to an offensive porn web site. He noticed many victims in the videos on the “potty” website, wearing company shirts from the gas station.
In 2016, Cerna received a 1 year jail sentence.