A San Antonio man, who served in the Army at the National Security Agency, is headed to prison for taking spying to different level.
James Johannes, 34, was sentenced to six years in federal prison on child pornography charges. He was busted for using his cell phone to videotape his 12 year old neighbor as she was undressing in her second story bedroom on Lackland Air Force Base.
"This defendant climbed a large child's play place, and then reached and stretched to stand on the roof of the porch in order to access the window," Assistant U.S. Attorney Sarah Wannarka testified. "It's such an outrageous invasion of their privacy."
The family of the victims, who attended the same Mormon church as Johannes, confronted him once before about peeping, but he denied it. The girls recognized him because Brother Jim, as he was called, was the youth pastor.
According to court papers, the way the Army Specialist was caught was that he mistakenly brought that cell phone into a secure area of the NSA.
"Security equipment detected a wireless signal from within the building. The NSA compound is a secured facility and cell phones are not allowed in the building. The signal was coming from an area near Johannes.
Johannes was asked if he had a cell phone, to which he replied that he did and gave the phone to an NSA Special Agent," the complaint reads. "It is NSA policy to search cell phones that were brought into secured NSA areas in order to determine if classified information was leaked on the cell phone."
While no classified information was discovered, the Security Information Specialist found four videos of an underage teenage female and five videos of that teen and her underage sister. While prosecutors say the images were modest, they involved bare breasts and focused on the girl's private areas.
Johannes admitted in court that he was addicted to pornography; a problem he had discussed with both his bishop and his wife. But he told the judge he stopped short of admitting that he was secretly videotaping his neighbors as they disrobed.
"I was embarrassed. Ashamed. As I am now," he told the judge. "It's a horrible thing."
In court, the mother of the victims told the judge that the whole incident has scarred their family. There is still a sheet over the window where Johannes peeped through.
“She can’t take it down,” she said of her 16 year old daughter. “She sees the blinds that didn’t protect her.”
Even though Johannes will be a sex offender for life, he will still have access to his own four children, one of whom is a 12 year old girl.
IMAGE' GETTY