Hidden camera discovered in Hobby Airport bathroom

HOUSTON (KTRK) -- Violated -- that's how dozens of women feel after a hidden camera was discovered in one of the restrooms at Hobby Airport. The camera was discovered in a secure area used by employees, so travelers never came across it.

Houston police are investigating the discovery. It's made many female employees at Hobby Airport very uncomfortable and as we told travelers what happened, it was alarming to them, too.

For one Houston Hobby Airport employee, going to work hasn't been the same the past few days.

"It was in a secure area. How can that happen to us?" said the employee, who did not want to be identified.

It's a discovery that left female employees speechless.

"I didn't know what to say. I was like, 'Oh my God, a camera,'" she said.

This employee says she saw a wire coming out of what appeared to be an old thermostat but didn't think much about it until another employee took a closer look and could even see the lens of the hidden camera.

"That's your most private moment in the whole wide world is in the bathroom. You don't even share that with your husband, and all of us ladies are completely devastated over that," the employee told us.

Houston police say the camera has been removed and the vice division is now investigating how it got there.

"I feel like a victim. I've been totally violated," the employee said.

Investigators say the camera in the bathroom is a criminal violation, and while this one was discovered in an employee restroom, female travelers throughout the entire airport were disturbed when we told them about the discovery.

"That's absolutely scary. I'm from Atlanta and that's been in the news there as well, so I hope this isn't a disturbing trend about Peeping Toms," traveler Janet Hill said.

"I think it's awful. I think they probably need to make sure that all of the restrooms are cleared out," traveler Pamela Barrett said.

"If it's that easy for them to get into the employee restroom, how easy would it be to get into any restroom or any place that it's supposed to be private, a fitting room?" traveler Charla St. Amant said.

This employee says she is speaking on behalf of the many women with whom she works.

"I want him to go to jail. I want him to go to jail for what he has done to us," the employee said.

The Houston Airport System is referring all comments to investigators.

If you have any information, you are asked to call Houston police.

(Copyright ©2012 KTRK-TV/DT. All Rights Reserved.) Get more Local »

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Man accused of setting up hidden cam in ex-wife's bedroom

  HOUSTON (KTRK) -- A man is accused of setting up a camera in his ex-wife's bedroom and taking nude photos of her.

Manuel Tovar, 43, is charged with improper photography/visual recording. Tovar and his wife divorced in 2003 and the two live separately. Court records state on March 23 the neighbor of Tovar's ex-wife was in the attic of her southeast Harris County residence fixing her air conditioner when he observed a laptop computer hidden between two wooden rafters. The laptop had a cord attached to it that led to a video camera which was placed in a hole in the sheetrock next a ceiling fan in the woman's bedroom. She told police she recognized the laptop as belonging to her ex-husband, Tovar.

The woman says when she opened the laptop, she found files containing photos of her in her bedroom including some pictures in which she was nude. The photos appeared to have started in early July 2011 and ended the same day in March 2012 that she found them.

Police say they listened to a taped cell phone conversation between Tovar and his ex-wife in which they say he admitted he did it and he was sorry, and he allegedly told her that he took the photos because he wanted to see her naked.

The woman told police that Tovar had access to her residence when he would visit their children there, and that in early July 2011 Tovar was given access to the attic to patch a hold in the roof.

Bond has been set at $2,000.

(Copyright ©2012 KTRK-TV/DT. All Rights Reserved.)
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Hidden cameras document apparent misuse of deputies in Precinct 1

HOUSTON (KTRK) -- A Precinct 1 commander says deputies lived in fear of a veteran Houston constable. Now, hidden cameras document the apparent misuse of deputies by the now former Constable Jack Abercia.

Jack Abercia denies he lined his pockets, misused his deputies, and that's why we often do surveillance, so we can see how your money is being spent.

You can appreciate why Jack Abercia isn't happy. He'd just been indicted on bribery and conspiracy charges.

"Pitiful, pitiful," Pct. 1 Sgt. Rita Britt said.

"Does he deserve this, do you think?" we asked her.

"Yes sir," she said.

And Rita Britt should know.

"I've been there 29 years," Britt said.

She runs a team of deputies at Precinct 1 who bring juveniles to justice, and now she's retiring -- and speaking out.

"Whatever the boss asked them to do something, or told them to do something -- told them to rather than ask them -- they felt like they had to do it," Britt said.

The 13-count federal indictment accuses the constable of enlisting deputies to perform personal errands on county time.

"We have deputies taking materials to your bay house. Is that an appropriate use of deputies?" we asked Abercia.

"That ain't true. That's ain't true on county time," he said.

Even on a morning off, this deputy is picking up vinyl siding at a place in The Heights, not for his own house; he'll drive it down to the constable's bay house in La Marque.

"To me, it would be very demeaning because, like I say, you don't have a choice in it," Britt said.

Another deputy does work at the constable's million-dollar house off Memorial, and he's on duty. Our hidden camera can prove that wasn't much of a secret at Precinct 1.

"I'm telling you, that's his own can of worms," ex-Pct. 1 Chief Michael Butler says on hidden camera.

Rita Britt says one of her investigators could disappear for weeks at a time, the perks of being one of Jack Abercia's cabana boys.

"Those guys would be untouchable and there's nothing you can do about it, so it was frustrating," Britt said.

Now, a top commander admits what life was like under the Abercia regime.

"There was intimidation going on?" we asked Harris County Pct. 1 Chief Deputy J.C. Mosier.

"Of course," he said.

"And there was fear?" we asked.

"Oh you can see it," he said.

Here is a sergeant and a lieutenant teaming up to pick up bread from a shop on Washington, and we mean lots of bread. The sergeant takes a detour to pick up building supplies; then they meet up again at a funeral home. A uniformed deputy joins them; three lawmen picking up cases of water -- one after another, after another. The sergeant will take the morning provisions down to the bay house for the constable. And there's Abercia, sitting on the back porch. It's 10:30 in the morning, a work day for most of us.

"So they were all being paid? All those people were being paid?" we asked Abercia.

"I got canceled checks. I got canceled checks," he said.

"OK, can we have them?" we asked.

"No," he said.

Canceled checks the constable now refuses to show us, and at Precinct 1, deputies can't work an extra job without written permission and there are no records of any work for the Abercias.

Even back in October, they were worried 13 Undercover was coming, and they even knew what the constable would say and joked about the way he'd say it.

"I told y'all, I told y'all, I told y'all to be off the g****** clock," Butler says on hidden camera.

Of course Chief Butler is now accused of taking bribes too, a widening scandal of Harris County constables and the way they are allowed to treat their county employees.

"Quit taking advantage of your position, be fair, be fair to your employees, be fair to the public; quit putting yourself up on a pedestal," Britt said.

Check out the videos and confrontations you'll only see on 13 Undercover Interactive, including some of the exclusive hidden camera video we took during this investigation. And stay tuned Thursday night, because Precinct 1 was worried we'd find another of their secrets, and of course, we did.

(Copyright ©2012 KTRK-TV/DT. All Rights Reserved.) Get more 13 Undercover »

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Hidden camera inside Pct. 1 sheds light on probe

HOUSTON (KTRK) -- 13 Undercover gets a hidden camera inside a Houston constable's office and wait till you hear what they said when they didn't know we were listening.

The FBI has made the arrests, and now 13 Undercover has the video even the feds haven't seen.

Long before the FBI moved in, 13 Undercover was already watching Precinct One by surveillance of deputies using our hidden cameras. And we got an earful. We want to warn you, too. Some of the language here may not be right for kids.

Let's take a trip downtown, headquarters -- Precinct One Constable Jack Abercia. Wouldn't you have loved to have been a fly on their wall? You can, thanks to our 13 Undercover hidden camera.

"This man is gonna stand so far back from that s*** like he didn't know what the f*** was going on," Michael Butler says on hidden camera.

That's the second in command, Chief Deputy Michael Butler, and this was recorded back in October. We were already knee-deep in our investigation of constables -- Victor Trevino, May Walker. Let's just say at Precinct One, they worried they might be next.

"You think Jack Abercia is going to go on f****** camera? Are you nuts? Are you f****** nuts?" Butler says on hidden camera.

Abercia did say no, but we were there just minutes after he turned in his retirement papers this month.

"I don't have nothing to say to y'all at all. Y'all trying to burn somebody that don't need to be burned," Abercia told us.

"I resent the hell out of you," he told us.

"What did I do?" we asked.

"You talk too much that's not true," he said.

But we had only reported the FBI was investigating Abercia's office for alleged bribery in the hiring of a deputy named Alan James.

"They can do what they want. I haven't done nothing that I'm afraid of ever coming out," Abercia said.

James was hired even after a Precinct One review committee said he should not be given a badge and gun. The constable now blames Chief Butler.

"That was his problem. I told him I didn't want him," he said.

Abercia denies he got a penny for the James hiring, but last week, both the constable and the chief were in handcuffs, charged with accepting bribes in the James case.

Long before FBI moved in for the arrest, we'd already been watching Precinct One for months -- the possible misuse of deputies, county equipment. Listen closely as the chief deputy is questioned by a Precinct One deputy about the integrity of the guy in charge.

"Can Jack Abercia go on TV and say I'm not a crook?" the deputy asks Butler on hidden camera.

"No, he can't, he can't say that. He can't say that," Butler replies.

And wait for it. Here comes the punch line:

"Let me ask you this question: Are there nuts in a Snickers?" Butler adds, then laughs.

We told the constable how they talk about him behind closed doors.

"I haven't done anything, Wayne. I ain't done anything. I know they have all things that we can take pictures of everywhere but I just don't stoop like that at all and I'm not a crook," Abercia said.

It's a denial chief Butler had predicted Abercia would make long before that FBI trouble began.

"He was your right hand guy," we told Abercia.

"Well, I would challenge him to a polygraph. I would, 'cause Wayne, I don't do those things. My mother didn't bring up a fool," he replied.

Chief Butler is now gone from Precinct One. He turned in his badge just days after FBI agents showed up at his house asking about possible bribes. And the constable, he got out days later.

"Is Michael Butler a crook?" we asked Abercia.

"I'm not going to answer that question. I knew something was wrong," he said.

And Michael Butler had predicted what Abercia would do if the trouble ever came.

"He gonna be up out of here, son. It'd be every man for themselves," Butler says on hidden camera.

Tuesday, our hidden cameras follow some of the constable's men. Were they getting paid to be high-priced errand boys?

(Copyright ©2012 KTRK-TV/DT. All Rights Reserved.) Get more 13 Undercover »

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