A Massachusetts man faced a judge Monday for allegedly recording a 15-year-old boy in a locker room during a wrestling tournament in Chelmsford over the weekend, police say.
David Menard, 54, of Waltham, faced charges of possession of child pornography and videotaping or electronically surveilling a person nude or partially nude during his appearance in Lowell District Court.
The judge set Menard's bail at $2,500 and ordered him to stay away from children under the age of 16 as well as schools.
A boy changing in the Chelmsford High School locker room Saturday afternoon looked up and saw Menard recording him with his cellphone, investigators have said. The boy told his coaches, who detained Menard until officers could arrive.
Prosecutors said the computer engineer snuck into the boy's locker room at the high school and recorded the victim showering.
"The defendant quickly exited the locker room. He was confronted by a number of the coaches on scene. They demanded that he show his phone to them," prosecutor Rachel Perlman said in court.
Menard allegedly drove to the school from Waltham and walked into the locker room wearing all dark clothing.
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"Many of the children that were there initially thought that he was a janitor or somebody that worked for the school," Perlman said.
Menard willingly handed his phone to the coaches who confronted him, Chelmsford police said. Officers later found multiple cameras, laptops and recording devices inside his car, and are waiting on search warrants to study the devices for further potential evidence.
Both police and parents of students who attended the tournament are now concerned about whether there are any other victims. Nearly two dozen school districts from across New England attended the wrestling event.
"It's really disturbing and, I guess, how do you protect them?" said parent Dena Seelen. "It becomes overwhelming as a parent and I think that the city, how are they going to protect all of the kids? There's a lot of school events going on all the time. No kid is more important than the next kid or the next event."
It's unclear when Menard is due back in court.
