The man accused of filming men in the bathroom of Starbucks on Albany Avenue in West Hartford admitted to placing the camera there several times, as well as in other men’s bathrooms, and apologized for it, according to the recently released court documents.
One video file showed a man adjust the camera, which was pointed at the toilet in an open bathroom with no stall and police used that to identify a suspect.
Police arrested Paul Deveau, 51, of Hartford, on July 27, after Starbucks employees identified the man in the file as “Paul,” a frequent customer who works as a graphic designer at Hartford Hospital, according to court documents.
Deveau told police he was gay and would hide cameras in men’s rooms, not women’s rooms, according to court documents. He admitted to placing hidden cameras in the Starbucks men’s room “between 10 and 20 times” as well as in the men’s rooms at a Starbucks at 852 Cottage Grove Road in Bloomfield, a Route 66 gas station in Hebron and the Subway sandwich shop at 932 Farmington Ave.
When police went to Deveau’s home, he pointed out four laptops, several CDs, three iPhones, two desktop computers and an external hard drive that he said would or could have illegal videos or images on them, the paperwork states. He also told police that one computer once had images or videos that could be considered child pornography, but he deleted them a while ago, the report states.
Police began investigating after a Starbucks’ customer found the camera under the men’s room sink. The customer told police he found the camera when he went to wash his hands and could not get hot water.
He checked the pipes to see if the hot water was off, found the camera attached to the pipe, removed it, brought the camera home, downloaded some videos to his computer and copied several to CD, according to the court documents.
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The customer then brought the camera back to Starbucks and gave it to the manager, who called police, and left before police arrived, court documents state.
Police seized computers and DVDs from the customer’s home after he said he downloaded the material, but the man has not been linked to Deveau, the documents state.
Deveau was charged with 12 counts of voyeurism.
