The State Attorney’s Office on Friday filed a second-degree felony charge of video voyeurism against Jonathan Bernard Mahan, a 26-year-old Bunnell resident, after his video cameras were allegedly found in the bedrooms of his 43-year-old ex-girlfriend and of her 18-year-old daughter’s.
The alleged victim and her mother reported finding one video camera in each of their bedrooms. One had been placed near the daughter’s television, which she initially mistook for a router. When it fell, she realized it was a camera. Another had been placed on the mother’s dresser.
Mahan had previously lived in the residence. The mother reported to police that she had recently broken up with him after a six-year relationship. Mahan had moved out a week earlier. While Bunnell Police Lt. Shane Groth was interviewing the mother and daughter, Mahan walked in.
“Lt. Groth pointed to the two video cameras on the kitchen counter, and Jonathan immediately admitted they were his,” according to his arrest report. “He confessed to placing both cameras in the bedrooms without consent. Jonathan explained that, during an argument with [the mother], he had secretly placed a camera on her dresser because he suspected she was seeing someone else. Regarding the camera in [the daughter’s] bedroom, Jonathan explained that when [she] was about 15 years old, she had a boyfriend who would visit and spend time in her room unsupervised. Concerned for [her] well-being, he placed a camera in her bedroom to monitor the situation, without [either women’s] knowledge or consent.”
Mahan’s arrest report states he initially acknowledged “his actions were wrong,” but that he’d not recorded or viewed any inappropriate content. He briefly agreed to let police examine his phone, only to rescind consent and drive off with his cell phone. Worried that he might delete evidence, police officers followed him to his residence at 9 Ace Court. They took possession of the phone. They secured search warrants for both residences, taking possession of what police referred to as nanny cameras and related equipment from the women’s residence, and two laptops and two iPhones from Mahan’s bedroom in the Ace Court residence, along with associated equipment.
Two days later, the mother told police she had discovered four “Polaroid-style photographs of her daughter” when she was 15, left in what had been Mahan’s bedside table when he lived at that residence, and a box that had contained one of the cameras.
Mahan had told police that the camera in the mother’s bedroom had not been hooked up, and the camera in the daughter’s bedroom had been set to “live view” only, and that he’d never saved any footage. That proved to be not quite true, according to his arrest report. Bunnell police, with the assistance of the Flagler County Sheriff’s Office, found Mahan to have viewed the live feed of the daughter as she was in her underwear and topless on Nov. 7, five days after she turned 18. He had allegedly taken two screenshots and stored them in his phone.
The Bunnell Police Department announced Mahan’s arrest on June 3, with few details. The case did not appear in the Clerk of Court’s docket until Friday, after the State Attorney filed the charges. Mahan also faces a third-degree felony charge of unlawful use of a two-way communication device. The maximum exposure if guilty is 20 years in prison, but the actual exposure is significantly less, both because Mahan has no prior record, and because he is likely to plead out.
Mahan’s attorney filed a motion to dismiss on June, 12, along with additional routine pre-trial motions such as a motion to suppress his confession and admissions, which typically get denied. Mahan is scheduled for his first pre-trial hearing on July 23. Assistant State Attorney Melissa Clark is prosecuting the case.
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