Donald Hayes of Covington pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of attempted voyeurism Nov. 12 in King County Superior Court, according to Dan Donahoe, spokesman for the King County Prosecutor’s office.
Hayes, 54, was originally charged with felony voyeurism Aug. 10 after he was accused of videotaping a 13-year-old girl while she undressed in a spare room in his home.
The agreement allowed him to plead guilty to an attempted voyeurism count, “even though he pleaded to a lesser charge, the sentence range is very similar,” according to Donahoe.
“We get a longer community supervision him, which is two years as opposed to one year,” Donahoe said. “He has to go through sexual deviancy treatment and as part of the sentence, 15 days confinement, and that can be electronic home detention. He also has to register as a sex offender.”
Hayes will be under the supervision of the state Department of Corrections while on probation.
In addition, he must complete 180 hours of community service, and at least 12 hours per month.
He also is not allowed to have any contact with the girl he is accused of recording for two years, according to the plea agreement provided by the prosecutor’s office.
The incident occurred April 28, 2009 when a pair of girls were invited to his home by a family member to go swimming, according to charging papers.
The victim had borrowed a swim suit and after she finished swimming was directed by Hayes into a spare room, charging documents stated, to change into her clothes. She is not identified in the charging papers because she is a juvenile.
While she was changing, the girl noticed a red light flashing on a video camera that was sitting on a desk in the spare room. She looked at what was on the camera and saw she had been recorded even though “she had expected privacy as there was a door that could be closed.”
Shortly after, the victim told an adult what happened and eventually the camera was returned without its recording disc to Hayes.
During an initial interview with police Hayes said “he had inadvertently pushed record on the camera instead of stop … he said he was transferring movies from VHS tape to DVD” but during another interview at the Regional Justice Center in Kent the explanation he gave for the accidental recording did not match his initial one.
Hayes then took and failed a polygraph test, according to charging papers, and he then admitted he had set the camera up to record.
The charging document stated, “He said that he was not sure what he was going to get or which girl was going to be in that room. He said it was stupid of him to do that. He said he never had thoughts like this before.”
