A convicted sex offender was charged on March 13 for taking photos of women in a restaurant bathroom on March 6.
Jason Douglas Halter, 23, of Auburn is being held on $100,000 bail because his likelihood to reoffend is high based on prior convictions, court documents state.
At 9 p.m. on March 6 at the Old Country Buffet in Federal Way, police responded to reports that a male was taking pictures of women in the women’s bathroom. The restaurant manager told police a customer came out of the women’s restroom and said there was a male in the restroom taking photos of her as she used the facility.
According to court documents, the manager quickly entered the women’s bathroom and knocked on the stall doors, demanding the man exit.
As she did this, she saw a man pass a cell phone into the stall next to him. Court documents state it was later learned a woman was in that stall. Prosecutors allege there’s probable cause to believe the women was in on the crime.
The female suspect left the bathroom quickly and the manager detained Halter and told him the police had been called and to wait for them.
However, he told the manager he really had to use the restroom and that’s why he was in there. After a few minutes of waiting, he said he did nothing wrong and pushed past the manager, leaving in a green Honda.
But a restaurant employee followed him to his car and took down his license plate number.
While the manager waited for police, a woman approached her and said her 7-year-old daughter had also been in the restroom at the same time and that she saw a cell phone placed under the stall as she used the bathroom. The woman gave the manager her name but left Old Country Buffet before police arrived.
Police ran the license plate and found the vehicle was recently stopped in Auburn with a driver matching the description witnesses gave. The driver was listed as Halter.
After checking the Washington State database, police discovered Halter pleaded guilty to “possession of depictions of minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct” and two counts of indecent exposure involving minor children in 2012. In an April 2011 assessment for the sentencing of those cases, a sexual deviancy treatment provider found Halter had a moderate to high risk to reoffend.
“The defendant’s adjustment to Department of Corrections supervision has been troubled according to his community corrections officer,” the documents state. “At the time of this incident, the defendant was in the company of a woman who Department of Corrections [officials] have prohibited him from having contact with as a condition of supervision due to her involvement in assisting him with violating court-ordered conditions of no contact against minors.”
Halter’s criminal history also indicates he was reported to have been living with the woman in December 2014, another violation.
Police found Halter after he was stopped on March 9 for a traffic infraction in Olympia, five days after the alleged voyeurism. Court documents state the car belongs to his father in Bremerton and because he had been contacted by police in the past, they had reason to believe he was living in the car for the past few months.
