{"id":42470,"date":"2022-01-29T02:30:28","date_gmt":"2022-01-29T09:30:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/durango-business-owner-pleads-guilty-for-hidden-camera\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T03:07:33","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T09:07:33","slug":"durango-business-owner-pleads-guilty-for-hidden-camera","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/durango-business-owner-pleads-guilty-for-hidden-camera\/","title":{"rendered":"Durango business owner pleads guilty for hidden camera"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/p>

Wade Allen Bigall, 59, entered a plea agreement Friday after placing a camera in a unisex bathroom inside his Element Window and Door store at 360 South Camino del Rio, Suite 200, south of downtown Durango.<\/p>\n

Bigall plead guilty to four counts of invasion of privacy for sexual gratification and will serve 10 days in jail as a condition of the agreement. Bigall must also register as a sex offender, abide by protection orders and undergo an evaluation for treatment.<\/p>\n

Sixth Judicial District Judge Todd Norvell accepted the plea.<\/p>\n

Four times, Norvell asked, \u201cHow do you plead?\u201d<\/p>\n

Four times, Bigall responded, \u201cGuilty, your honor,\u201d in the formal proceedings.<\/p>\n

Police served Bigall with a summons in April 2021 for a camera that was strategically placed to take photographs and record videos of people in the bathroom, Detective Sgt. Bobby Taylor with the Durango Police Department told The Durango Herald<\/em> in May.<\/p>\n

Someone commits invasion of privacy for sexual gratification if they \u201cknowingly observe or take a photograph of another person\u2019s intimate parts without that person\u2019s consent, in a situation where the person observed or photographed has a reasonable expectation of privacy,\u201d according to Colorado law.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis was definitely not normal surveillance, and you wouldn\u2019t put that in a restroom anyway,\u201d Taylor said. \u201cThis was definitely a hidden recording device.\u201d<\/p>\n

DPD first learned of the camera in March 2021, though it had already been removed from the bathroom.<\/p>\n

Bigall cooperated with investigators and turned over a laptop computer, allowing them to access the device.<\/p>\n

Forensic examination following a search warrant for Bigall\u2019s electronic devices revealed still photographs and short videos of people in the bathroom from 2020 and 2021, according to DPD.<\/p>\n

Police were able to identify where the camera had been hidden by reviewing footage from the camera.<\/p>\n

Police identified four victims, three women and one man, Taylor said.<\/p>\n

Those victims filed a lawsuit against Bigall in District Court in April 2021, accusing Bigall of emotional distress and invasion of privacy.<\/p>\n

Matthew Campbell, an attorney for the victims, welcomed the guilty plea.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur clients are really relieved that justice has been served,\u201d he said. \u201cMr. Bigall is going to be held accountable for his disgusting actions.\u201d<\/p>\n

A judge suspended the lawsuit against Bigall until his criminal case finished. Lawyers for the victims hope the case can now move ahead.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re going to be seeking to start the civil case as soon as possible,\u201d Campbell said.<\/p>\n

As Class 1 misdemeanors, Bigall faced up to two years in jail and a $5,000 fine for each of the four counts.<\/p>\n

Bigall\u2019s sentencing hearing is scheduled for 10 a.m. April 8.<\/p>\n

ahannon@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

agrees to four counts of invasion of privacy for sexual gratification<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":23686,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[4400,133,168,28,1025,107,1215],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-42470","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-computer-crime","tag-courts","tag-crime","tag-headlines","tag-law-and-justice","tag-laws","tag-lawyer"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42470","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42470"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42470\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":85346,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42470\/revisions\/85346"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23686"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42470"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42470"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42470"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=42470"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}