Man charged after attempting to film men in Pitt bathrooms

A 23-year-old man was charged on two counts last week after he was accused of filming multiple men in bathroom stalls on Pitt’s campus. The incident took place in Lawrence Hall, Posvar Hall and the Cathedral of Learning in April.

In a criminal complaint filed Sept. 1, Pitt police charged Telmar Palmer with one count each of invasion of privacy and attempted indecent assault based on video evidence recovered from Palmer’s phone.

According to the complaint, a male Pitt student reported on April 23 that a man had attempted to film the student with his phone while the student was in a state of undress in a bathroom stall on the fourth floor of Posvar. When the student confronted the man in the hallway, the complaint said, the man attempted to grab his genitals before running away.

Pitt police matched the student’s description of the man with video of a similar incident that had taken place in Lawrence Hall less than half an hour earlier.

An hour after the student’s report, two Pitt police officers caught up with the suspect, Palmer, in a bathroom on the second floor of the Cathedral, the complaint read. Palmer fled on foot, but officers caught up with him in front of Forbes-Craig Apartments and took him into custody.

Police searched the man’s two cell phones for any photos and videos he had taken in the bathrooms earlier that day. Finding nothing, police worked to recover deleted photos and videos. Months later they recovered four videos filmed in a bathroom on the date of the April incident. The videos show Palmer’s face and footage of a man pulling up his pants in a bathroom stall.

Palmer’s preliminary hearing is scheduled for the end of October.

Elise Lavallee contributed reporting to this story.