Voyeurism charges possible because of law change

WARSAW, Ind. (WANE) - About 15 months after Indiana's voyeurism law was expanded, a Warsaw man faces three counts of voyeurism after police said he took pictures up high school girls' skirts.

According to Warsaw police, Daniel Zambrano, 35, admitted to taking pictures and video of girls at Warsaw Community High School during May and the first three months of this fall semester. Police said Zambrano would use his iPhone to record under the desks.

Zambrano worked part time at the high school as a support staff member with the "English as a Second Language" program. The district superintendent said Zambrano was fired October 19th.

He now faces three voyeurism charges, all class A misdemeanors. The charges were possible because Indiana's voyeurism law was expanded to include public places.

"It covers you in public and private places," State Senator Tom Wyss, said. "The law used to cover private places, like your home or a restroom [or dressing room], but not the general public area. The law had to be adapted to apply to any situation."

A school classroom would not have been considered a "private" place under the old law.

In 2009, NewsChannel 15 discovered a loophole in Indiana law. Wyss wrote a bill to close that gap, and the updated law went into effect July 1, 2011.

"A lot of times it's nuances in the law that need to be corrected. Because of a situation in northeast Indiana and when I saw it on [NewsChannel 15], that caused me to get the law changed. As you can see, it is necessary," Wyss said. "I'm really happy to see it's going to be applied to this man and put him away to never do something like this again."