Teen sentenced for secretly snapping pics in gym bathroom

HOUSTON

Gerson Bonilla, 18, pleaded guilty to a charge of improper photography today and was sentenced to six months in Harris County Jail.

Police say the incident happened at the Fitness Connection on the Gulf Freeway near Fuqua. According to prosecutors, Bonilla used some sort of cell phone camera and placed it underneath the stall of a bathroom and allegedly started snapping photos of a male employee. The photos he took, prosecutors say, were obviously inappropriate.

Working out at this Fitness Connection along the Gulf Freeway is a ritual for Brian Rupp, until two days ago when he noticed something unusual.

"I saw the cop car pulling away," Rupp said.

What Rupp didn't know at the time is that police arrested Bonilla for allegedly taking cell phone photos of a male employee in the men's locker room.

"The way that locker room is set up in there, it's very easy to have a blind spot that you can't see," Rupp said.

Every gym member we talked to was surprised.

"I don't even know what to say about that, I'm speechless," gym member Ron Blackmon said.

"That's somewhere private, you don't need a camera in there. That's wrong, and yes, you should be arrested; that's no different than making a porn movie," gym member Debbe Meade said.

But Meade is even more surprised that it's been two days since Bonilla's arrest for improper photograph and visual recording, yet no one at the gym has told the members.

"Note on the door at least letting you know before you walk in that something like that has happened to at least make you aware of it," she said.

We tried to talk to gym managers, and even called the corporate office. No one called us back.

Rupp says he'll be more careful every time he's in the locker room.

"You just never know who's doing what or what people are thinking," he said.

Management wouldn't let us inside to see how the gym is laid out.