A former Border Patrol supervisor who placed a camera in the women’s bathroom at the Chula Vista Border Patrol building surrendered Feb. 5 to Terminal Island federal prison to start his 21-month sentence.
Armando Gonzalez, 47, has a parole date of Aug. 6, 2017, according to the U.S. Board of Prisons. Terminal Island is located in San Pedro and it is a low security facility where it houses 1,155 male inmates.
U.S. District Court Judge Roger Benitez had allowed Gonzalez to remain free on $50,000 bond until federal authorities determined where to place Gonzalez since he is a former law enforcement officer.
Gonzalez paid two federal female employees $1,322 in restitution, mostly for therapy, as ordered by Benitez on Jan. 21, his attorney, Gretchen von Helms, said. He lost his Border Patrol job of 20 years when he pleaded guilty in 2015.
Gonzalez pleaded guilty to making a false statement to a federal officer and seven counts of digital voyeurism.
Gonzalez initially claimed he put the camera in the drain to catch illegal drug use, but he later said that was not true.
Benitez ordered him to complete a sex offender evaluation while in prison, records say.
Von Helms argued at his Dec. 14 sentencing that his post traumatic stress disorder(PTSD) affected his judgment in putting the camera in the bathroom, although the judge said he could not understand how that had anything to do with it.
