A man was taken into custody by the Kingston Springs Police Department after it was reported that he used a cell phone to videotape a woman using the restroom at a truck stop by hiding it behind the partition.
The purported event took place on July 14. Arrest documents state that 21-year-old Eduardo Navarrette, an undocumented Mexican national, entered a stall occupied by a woman in her 20s and slid a cell phone beneath the wall.
The young lady said to News 2 that she had just left Nashville and was traveling through Kingston Springs. She claimed she was using the restroom and had no idea that her privacy would be so blatantly violated in an instant.
“I was just shocked,” the victim said. “I wasn’t expecting that at all. I was like, ‘Did that really happen?’”
A 38-year-old mother of three entered the bathroom at that same moment.
“The gentleman was running out of the ladies’ restroom, and he almost knocked me down, so it took me by surprise,” she recalled.
The mother claimed that at first, she was perplexed and believed that maybe she had entered the men’s room. She soon realized, though, that she was in the women’s restroom.
The mother allegedly overheard the young woman telling her boyfriend that she had just been recorded beneath the stall at that point.
“The young lady beside me was really upset, saying that somebody beside her was filming her; they stuck a camera on the other side of the barrier and she was really freaked out,” the mother described.
The mother replied that she had just seen the man and yelled to the woman about it. After using the restroom, they both went into the main section of the truck stop. At the gas pumps, the mother saw Navarrette in a car at that point.
The young woman was filming the altercation when the 38-year-old confronted the 21-year-old who was sitting in the front seat of a car.
“That was you! This is him! He was filming her in the bathroom!” the mother yelled. “Yeah it was, I saw him! He’s filming her in the bathroom! That was you, dude! That was you! We’re calling the police! You’re going to jail!”
The mother went on to remark about Navarrette, stating, ” “Oh yeah, dude. He was filming her in the bathroom. He’s a creep. He’s a pervert. That was him.”
Arrest records state that the suspect fled the truck stop. The car’s driver, who remained behind, informed the authorities that Navarrette was a friend.
Navarrette’s court papers that he had earlier in the day for operating a vehicle with a suspended license was purportedly discovered by the authorities when they examined the vehicle.
For the next few weeks, police searched in vain for the suspect.
Officers from Kingston Springs were then at the Dickson County Courthouse in Charlotte on Tuesday, August 20, hoping Navarrette would show up to handle the suspended license infraction.
The 21-year-old was arrested by authorities and accused of violating someone’s privacy by taking pictures without permission.
According to authorities, Navarrette is being held in the Cheatham County Jail on a $15,000 bond.
The suspect’s cell phone was taken by police, who informed News 2 they would obtain a warrant to examine its contents. The arresting officer is also investigating the possibility of filing a petition for the Mexican national’s deportation.