Plea Agreement Reached in Rochester ‘Peeping Tom’ Case
Rochester, MN (KROC-AM News) - A plea deal has been worked out in the case of a Rochester man accused of recording video of a woman using a bathroom in a local grocery store about a year ago.
The attorney representing 38-year-old Patrick John Gaffron has filed a Petition to Enter a Guilty Plea in Olmsted County Court. He was charged last October with two felony counts of interference with privacy.
According to the charges, Rochester police were called to the Crossroads Hy-Vee on April 16th of last year after a woman reported that she had caught a man recording her in the bathroom. The woman told the officers that she confronted the man, who then fled from the store and ran into a nearby neighborhood.
The criminal complaint says investigators were able to identify Gaffron by reviewing videos recorded by the store's surveillance cameras. He was arrested three days after the incident.
Under the terms of the tentative plea agreement, Gaffron will enter a Norgaard plea to a gross misdemeanor charge of interference with privacy. The Norgaard plea means he admits he is guilty but does not remember his actions because he was under the influence at the time.
The court document says he acknowledges that the evidence shows that he went into the restroom at the grocery store and placed his cell phone in a stall that was occupied by a woman through a crack in the wall. It also states that his intent was to record or photograph an image of the victim’s "intimate parts" without her consent.
A plea hearing in his case has been scheduled next month.
Minnesota Court records show that Gaffron was convicted of interfering with privacy in Winona County in 2016 and was sentenced to two years on probation. In that case, he was accused of recording video of a woman in a restroom at Winona Health.
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Gallery Credit: Minnesota Now
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