Women Violated by Video Voyeur Seek Justice

Aug. 3, 2006 — -- Yvonne Goodwin, a 35-year-old mother of two in Huntington Beach, Calif., no longer feels safe in her own home.

That's because she discovered a neighbor had been secretly videotaping her most intimate moments.

And it was no isolated incident. It turned out the man convicted of videotaping her -- William David Brown -- may have been watching Yvonne for six years before he was caught.

"I don't know who I am anymore. I'm not the Yvonne I was before," she said.

Brown videotaped Goodwin undressing in the bathroom, taking showers, even bathing her young son.

"What's scary is that he knew my routine better than I did," Goodwin said.

Brown is a video voyeur -- a 21st-century Peeping Tom who used high-powered cameras secretly located throughout his property to record Goodwin and his other victims -- all from the comfort of his own home.

The hidden cameras were connected by underground cables to his garage, where he had 24-hour video surveillance equipment.

Meagan Rogers says she was another of Brown's victims. She says back in 2004 she noticed every time she opened her blinds, a strange box would appear on top of Brown's daughter's playhouse.

"When we shined the light into the box, the lens lit up. So that's when it became a reality that it was a camera," Rogers said.

Rogers and Goodwin felt violated even though they weren't touched.

"It makes you sick to your stomach … like Yvonne said, it makes you almost feel like you don't even want to get dressed that day," Rogers said.

When Rogers spotted Brown's camera, it was the beginning of the end for him. She called the police and in December 2004, Huntington Beach police raided Brown's home.

In March, more than one year after the initial raid on his home, Brown pleaded guilty to misdemeanor electronic peeping charges and was sentenced to 120 days in jail.

The women say the punishment did not fit the crime.

"I totally feel I was raped," Goodwin said. "He saw my body more times than a one-time rape does, and got to watch them [his videos] over and over again at his pleasure."