Video Voyeurs Under Fire for Taping Lesbians
Two college students who were taped during intimate encounter are taking action.
June 13, 2008— -- Two female college students who were filmed during an intimate encounter without their knowledge are seeking justice.
Massachusetts College of Art and Design students Rosanne Strott and Emily Niland were in bed together when at least two young men videotaped them from a Wentworth Institute of Technology dormitory across the alley.
The video was uploaded to a shared Wentworth student network and had been in circulation for months before Strott and Niland discovered it in April.
"When I found out, I immediately vomited," Strott said. "It was a really strange thing for me. I had never felt so violated without being touched before."
Two of the men involved in the September videotaping have been identified by Boston police as Wentworth juniors David Cunha and David Siemiesz, who've been charged. According to a police account, the two men apparently filmed the incident from their dorm room, which directly faces Strott's at Massachusetts College of Art and Design.
Cunha could not be reached for comment by ABC News or the Boston Globe, which first reported the story. But Siemiesz told the Boston Globe this week that he sensed it was wrong to film the young women.
"I felt like it was kind of wrong," Siemiesz told the Boston Globe, when asked to describe how he felt while taping the women. "We didn't understand the severity of the situation when we were taping it."
But that admission was not enough for Niland and Strott, who said they couldn't believe the degree to which their privacy was violated.
"I was just disgusted, absolutely disgusted that someone would, first of all, videotape that, and second of all, distribute it to their friends," Niland, 20, said. "It's shocking that anybody would violate my privacy like that and not have any remorse for it."
Niland and Strott, 19, said they were dealt another blow last week when the Roxbury District Court assistant clerk held off on issuing a criminal complaint against the young men until Wentworth college finishes its investigation. Wentworth would not comment on the investigation because it is ongoing but said investigators expected to finish within two to three weeks.
For Strott, a Wentworth investigation is simply not enough. "I would really like to see them expelled from Wentworth, but there should be criminal action as well," she said. "What they did was a crime."
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