Man faces trial, charged with video peeping on women in bathroom
A Ferndale man accused of secretly video recording five women in a bathroom at a house in the city faced arraignment for trial Thursday in Oakland County Circuit Court
Tyler Tierney, 29, is charged with five felony counts of surve i lling an unclothed person.
He waived his right to preliminary examination last week in Ferndale 43rd District Court, where he was first arraigned on the charges more than two weeks ago.
“The camera he used was on the floor near the toilet,” said Ferndale officer Jillian Mahlmeister. “The camera was a small device with a memory card in it.”
One of the women who was recorded came across one of the clandestine recordings back in July and notified police, who began an investigation and eventually got warrants to search Tierney’s cell phone, computer, and Gmail account.
Investigators retrieved images from the electronic devices that included those of the women unknowingly recorded in the bathroom, police said.
During a swear- tohearing in Ferndale court in late October an undercover officer testified all the women were recorded unclothed from the waist down.
The women told police they felt violated by the secret video recordings after they learned what happened, the officer testified.
Tierney saved the recording he made of the women in the bathroom, but did not distribute the images, Mahlmeister said after he was charged.
Police interviewed the suspect before charges were filed and said he admitted that he set up the video camera in the bathroom at the house.
All five of the women in the case were also interviewed by investigators, police said.
Tierney’s defense attorney, Kimberly Stout, did not immediately respond to phone calls seeking comment on the case Wednesday.
Police arrested Tierney hours before he was arraigned in Ferndale on Nov. 16. He was scheduled to be arraigned for trial at 1 p.m. Thursday before Circuit Judge Phyllis McMillen.
Each of the five charges against him is a felony punishable by up to five years in prison.