A former Ferino's Pizzeria employee may face charges in a voyeurism incident that prompted owner Adam Burns to turn off his business’s Facebook page and ban employee cellphone use inside the eatery.

Jefferson County Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Anna Phillips said on Friday, Sept. 23 that she is reviewing a report by Jefferson County Sheriff's Office Detective Brett Anglin.

Anglin recommended the juvenile could be charged with as many as four counts of voyeurism for videos that were posted online showing female employees of Ferino's in various stages of undress inside an employee restroom.

“The case was just referred to my office yesterday. I haven't reviewed it,” Phillips said on Sept. 23. Phillips said she expected to review the report and have a charging decision this week. Voyeurism is a Class C felony with a conviction potentially bringing jail time and the requirement to register as a sex offender.

Phillips noted that the detective had recommended charges; it's a prosecutor's job to decide and file criminal charges.

Neither Phillips nor Anglin would confirm the suspect's age or gender; the suspect is noted only as someone who had worked at the business.

No hidden recording devices were located at the business when deputies responded to Burns' initial call on Sept. 11.

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Videos of female employees using an employee restroom were posted online Sept. 11, although Anglin said the suspect did not post directly on the Facebook page. Anglin said a group of whistleblower hackers, commonly known as “white knights,” had found the videos on a website called 4Chan. They noticed that the females in the videos were wearing Ferino's Pizzeria T-shirts, Anglin said.

“And it turns out that there is only one Ferino's Pizzeria in the United States,” Anglin said.

One or more observers posted videos on the Ferino's Facebook page as a way of alerting the business about their existence, Anglin said.

“It's not child porn. They didn't make [the videos]; they merely shared it,” he said.

“Apparently, there are good hackers and bad hackers,” Anglin said. “Their intent was to out the suspect, so the public knows it's a problem,” Anglin said.

BUSINESS REACTION

Adam Burns, owner of Ferino's, said the youth was fired when Anglin advised Burns of the investigation's outcome.

“It's still so raw,” Burns said on Sept. 23. “There is a relief that the sheriff found someone, but to know it was someone here, it feels like a betrayal.”

Burns said the youth wasn't at the restaurant when the Facebook page blew up Sept. 11 after the videos were posted.

(This story to be updated for Leader's Sept. 28 print edition.)