North Texas toilet stalker gets 20 months for filming co-workers

A Fort Worth man pleaded guilty Friday to hiding a camera inside a women’s restroom at a Fort Worth motel and admitted violating the terms of his probation in a similar case in Grapevine four years earlier.

Daryl Eugene Thompson, however, took the stand Friday and insisted repeatedly that he is not a sexual predator, prosecutors said.

Rather, Thompson testified, he was merely doing detective work, trying to catch employees he suspected of wrongdoing.

“It is what it is,” prosecutor Martin Purselley said Monday. “When you put a camera in a bathroom repeatedly with young women for outlandish reasons, we know why you’re doing it. You like to catch people going to the restroom.”

Thompson, 27, had been scheduled for a probation revocation hearing in the Grapevine case Friday when he unexpectedly pleaded guilty to the latest improper photography charge as well. He also pleaded “true” to violating terms of his probation in the Grapevine case.

After an all-day hearing, State District Judge Scott Wisch sentenced Thompson to 20 months in state jail in both cases. The sentences will run concurrently.

Thompson’s defense attorney, Jeffrey Boncek, declined to comment.

Fort Worth case

Thompson was employed at the Residence Inn Marriott at 13400 North Freeway in February when authorities say he placed a pair of glasses equipped with a camera in the women’s lobby restroom.

A female employee spotted the glasses, situated on the floor in between stalls and aimed at the toilet area, and later turned them over to police.

A forensic analysis of data in the glasses showed Thompson, his face and name tag visible in the shot, placing the glasses on the ground and the employee later picking them up.

Purselley said the same employee had previously caught Thompson in the women’s restroom, holding a plunger.

“She thought it was odd,” Purselley said. “He was trying to pass it off he was maintenance. He was a front desk person. He wasn’t maintenance.”

Thompson claimed in testimony that he thought the employee was stealing, Purselley said.

“He said he wanted to be a detective,” Purselley said. “I don’t know any detectives that are using cameras like that.”

Purselley said a search of Thompson’s residence uncovered a coat hook camera, attachable to a wall by adhesive and capable of taking wide-angle shots.

“For a guy on probation, you would think stuff like that would be Kryptonite,” Purselley said.

Grapevine case

In the Grapevine case, a female employee at the Olive Garden restaurant found a camera inside a wall vent in the women’s restroom in October 2011 after noticing a shoe print on the toilet seat and glancing upward.

Thompson, who worked as a waiter at the restaurant, was questioned and arrested by Grapevine police after video on the camera showed him setting up the camera.

He told Grapevine police that he was a criminal justice student who had put the camera in the restroom because he suspected employees were using drugs.

Thompson pleaded guilty in the Grapevine case and was sentenced in July 2012 to four years’ deferred adjudication probation. Probation conditions included that he undergo sex-offender treatment, court records show.

Prosecutors filed a motion to revoke Thompson’s probation following his arrest in March on the Fort Worth case. In addition to tacking on a new charge, they also accused Thompson of drinking alcohol despite being prohibited from doing so, and failing to complete two-thirds of his sex offender treatment goals.

Purselley said Thompson had a specific type of woman who he was preying on in an environment where they were at their most vulnerable.

“It violates so many levels of trust,” Purselley said. “You go to the restroom and you shouldn’t have to worry about guys like Daryl Thompson.”

This story was originally published July 27, 2015 at 2:07 PM with the headline "North Texas toilet stalker gets 20 months for filming co-workers."