UIC MEN’S SWIMMER ACCUSED OF VIDEO IN WOMEN’S LOCKER ROOM
A 19- year- old University of Illinois at Chicago student on the men’s swim team faces criminal charges for allegedly taking video of women swimmers undressing in their locker room.
As they undressed to put on their swimsuits before practice on Feb. 2, a pair of swimmers on the UIC women’s team heard laughter from the beyond the wall their locker room shares with the men’s team, Assistant Cook County State’s Attorney Joseph Carlson said Friday at a bond hearing.
One of the women looked up at a gap between the locker room ceiling and the wall “expecting the men to throw something over the wall,” Carlson said.
Instead, she spotted freshman swimmer Joseph Dalesandro’s iPhone, which had been pointed at the women’s locker room, Carlson said. The 20- year- old woman climbed up the lockers and snatched the phone, noting it had been recording for 45 minutes.
She stopped the recording but was unable to access the video. She then handed the phone over to university police, Carlson said.
Wearing a blue UIC windbreaker over sweatpants, Dalesandro bowed his head as he stood before Judge Laura Sullivan on Friday afternoon at the Leighton Criminal Courthouse.
Dalesandro, a graduate of Neuqua Valley High School in Naperville, was ordered held on $ 50,000 bond and was barred fromentering the locker rooms at the UIC or any contact with the victims.
Dalesandro’s attorney, Marc Davidson, said Dalesandro hadn’t shared the video with anyone.
“This was, I believe, a prank,” Davidson said. “It may be a tasteless one, but it was a prank that went nowhere.”
Dalesandro, Carlson said, was taken into custody by UIC Police on Thursday and unlocked his phone for investigators. He also signed a statement admitting that he had twice climbed the lockers of the men’s locker room and propped his camera in a gap between the wall and ceiling, Carlson said
A spokesman for the UIC athletic department declined to comment on disciplinary action by the university against Dalesandro, citing privacy laws. “The athletic department has been aware there has been an investigation and is fully cooperating with the university police and will continue to do so,” spokesman Dan Yopchick said Friday.
Dalesandro is “close” with his older sister, Gia Dalesandro, herself a standout swimmer who also starred at Neuqua Valley swim team and then at Indiana University, Davidson said.
Joseph Dalesandro coaches swimming and water polo, and is involved in the Special Olympics, Davidson said.