facebook-pixel

Utah couple charged with voyeurism for allegedly taking videos using a drone

Law enforcement • They allegedly took footage of people in bathrooms, bedrooms.

FILE - In this April 14, 2016 file photo, a drone captures videos and still images of an apartment building in Philadelphia. Federal aviation officials say so many people are registering drones and applying for drone pilot licenses, they wonder if there will eventually be millions of drones crowding the nation's skies. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke, File)

An Orem couple who allegedly used a camera on a drone to take footage of people in their bedrooms and bathrooms have been charged with voyeurism.

Aaron Dennis Foote, 39, and Terisha Lee Norviel, 34, are each charged in 4th District Court with one count of voyeurism using concealed or disguised electronic equipment, a class A misdemeanor.

The charges were filed Jan. 19, and the court docket shows scheduling hearings set for Friday for Norviel and March 3 for Foote.

According to an affidavit for a search warrant, an Orem man saw a drone flying low outside his bathroom window on Dec. 3, followed it as it flew away from his home and picked it up after it landed in a nearby church parking lot.

On the drone's SD card, the man saw multiple videos of people in their homes, as well as footage of someone flying the drone, and called police, the affidavit says.

Police were able to identify a pickup truck in a portion of the footage and locate Foote, the vehicle's registered owner, the affidavit says.

In a Facebook posting in December, Orem police had announced, "We found your Drone!," and invited the voyeur to turn himself or herself in.

Norviel was arrested in December and Foote was arrested in January.

Court records show that in 2008, Foote pleaded guilty to a class B misdemeanor charge of voyeurism involving an American Fork tanning salon and was placed on a year of probation. As a condition of his probation, he was required to complete a treatment program for voyeurism.

pmanson@sltrib.com

Twitter: @PamelaMansonSLC