A Boston man who was indicted by a federal grand jury last year on charges that he secretly filmed boys in bathrooms at Boston Latin School is expected to plead guilty to charges Monday, according to court records.
Erin Tran Thai, 36, was indicted and arrested in March 2019. He faces several counts of sexual exploitation of children.
Federal court records show that on Feb. 6, 2018, and Feb. 27, 2018, two separate Boston College students reported to police they had been videotaped without their knowledge or consent while using the men’s restrooms at the Boston College campus.
Police located in spoke with Thai after the Feb. 27, 2018 incident and he was arrested on state charges in Middlesex Superior Court.
“It is alleged that while speaking with police, Thai admitted to ‘taking some pictures’ of a man in the stall next to him without the man’s consent,” federal authorities said. “He further admitted to engaging in such activity for about a year.”
Investigators, at the time of the arrest, searched Thai’s bag and located several covert camera devices including: fake smoke detectors, a water bottle containing a small cube recording device, and a pair of sunglasses outfitted with a built-in camera, records said.
Authorities then searched Thai’s home on March 1, 2018, and seized approximately 26 computer hard drives, 20 thumb drives, 27 covert and regular cameras, 14 computers, iPads, and cell phones, and multiple SD and Sim cards.
The items were then reviewed by investigators. Several folders were labeled, “BU, MIT, Harvard, Northeastern, Bunker Hill, Boston Latin High School, and several different malls, airports, and foreign country locations,” federal authorities said.
Videos contained in folders labeled “Boston Latin High School” had 45 surreptitiously-recorded videos of male students in various states of dress using the urinals and stalls in a Boston Latin School boys’ bathroom, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
It appears the videos were created on 10 separate dates between February and December 2017.
“In general, the videos show Thai sitting in a bathroom stall at Boston Latin High School recording individuals in adjacent stalls or at the urinals through various secret recording methods,” authorities said. “In some videos, Thai appears to hold a camera over the top of the partition between the bathroom stalls and videotaping from overhead.”
Investigators said Thai, in some other instances, would hide a small camera inside a backpack and placed the backpack on the bathroom floor in order to videotape other people in the adjacent bathroom stall.
“While recording, it appears that Thai would simultaneously view what the camera was recording on a cellphone or a tablet device in his possession,” federal authorities said.
Thai originally pleaded not guilty in federal court. Records show a change of plea hearing is scheduled for Monday in Boston federal court.