Video recorded inside a changing room at Walter Johnson High School in 2018 captured “four individuals in various stages of undress,” Montgomery County Police said Wednesday.
Police said they are investigating James Mulhern III, 43, a school employee accused of recording the footage. He has been charged with sex abuse of a minor.
Investigators have spoken with the four people in the video and seized more than 100 devices, including computers, cellphones and tablets from the Bethesda school and Mulhern’s Clarksburg home.
There was no nudity in the video from 2018, which was shot during a school play, police said.
Detectives are reviewing evidence to determine if other crimes occurred.
A Montgomery County District Court judge on Friday granted Mulhern a $10,000 unsecured bond, which he does not have to pay unless he fails to appear at a scheduled court hearing.
His public defender could not be reached for comment Wednesday afternoon.
Mulhern is a media services technician at the school. His duties include teaching students about equipment and lighting. He also provides tech support for plays and musicals at the high school, according to court records.
A letter from Walter Johnson High School Principal Nicole Morgan to the school community said an unnamed staff member had been placed on leave without pay, pending the outcome of a police investigation.
Mulhern became a criminal suspect after two students found a video camera in a control booth at the school’s theater on April 7. School district staff notified police on April 15.
“One of the students viewed the contents of the memory card and saw videos recorded inside the girls’ changing room in the theater area,” police said in a news release last week.
The video also showed a man placing a camera and leaving the room while it was recording. Shortly after, “teenage girls entered the room and began changing clothes for a theater performance,” police said.
When he spoke to police, Mulhern initially denied wrongdoing but then acknowledged he was the man seen in screenshots setting up a camera in a changing room and then returning to turn it off.
He also told police he had an “attraction to multiple students while working at Walter Johnson High School,” according to court records.






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