10/05/02. Health tech's naked-photo cache unnerves town

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azcentral.com Wrote:

TIFFIN, Ohio - A medical center technician secretly captured dozens of photos and videos of women and girls undressing during exams and recorded hundreds of more women at stores, playgrounds and high school sporting events, shaking up residents in this town of only 18,000, authorities said.

Investigators have identified 59 women and 13 children in the photos taken at the medical center where Jaime Aguirre, 43, worked as an ultrasound technician, said Kevin Reinbolt, a detective with the Seneca County Sheriff's Office. They've been unable to determine the identities of another 200 women and children in the thousands of photos found on the man's home computer.

"He was infatuated by females," Reinbolt said. "Wherever he saw an opportunity, he took photos. He had pictures at playgrounds, at stores, in line at counters."

The discovery has shaken women in the north-central Ohio town home to two small colleges — Heidelberg University and Tiffin University.

"It makes me paranoid," said Nicole Mizen, 21.

Bond was set at $750,000 for Aguirre, of nearby Willard, in his initial court appearance Friday in Seneca County, where he is charged with illegal use of a minor in nudity oriented material and voyeurism.

Aguirre's public defender has not ruled out arguing that police had no reason to search the digital memory cards on Aguirre's phones during the traffic stop — an issue that has divided courts across the nation.

The Ohio Supreme Court ruled in December that police must obtain a search warrant before looking through a suspect's cell phone except under certain circumstances. He pleaded no contest this week in Portage County, on the other side of the state, to charges of possessing nudity-oriented material involving minors. Police there said they discovered about 200 images and videos of naked children and adults after a routine traffic stop in October.

That led to a search of Aguirre's home computer, on which police said they found about 150,000 sexually oriented images, Reinbolt said. Ages of the women and children who have been identified ranged from 4 to their late 60s, Reinbolt said.

Police say Aguirre used a tiny wireless camera to capture patients undressing at the medical center where he worked for about two years. He was fired after his arrest. Officials at the center said that they did not know about the photos and videos and that they have been helping authorities identify victims.

Some of the women have told investigators that they no longer feel comfortable at doctor's offices and that they will scan the examination rooms and ask for a female employee to be with them, Reinbolt said.

Many of the women in the pictures and videos are unlikely to be identified because Aguirre would zoom in on certain body parts as they were loading shopping bags in their cars or walking along a street, Reinbolt said.

Investigators said some were photographed in a Wal-Mart parking lot just down the street from the medical office, while others were probably recorded near Aguirre's home in Willard, about 20 miles east of Tiffin.

"It's shocking, disgusting," said Kerrie Detterman, 30, of Tiffin. "It's scary how easy it would be to do this."

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