Upskirt Video Suspect Pleads Guilty

A Valley Center man who used his cell phone to shoot thousands of still photos and video snippets up unsuspecting girls' and women's skirts at retail stores throughout Escondido and Rancho Bernardo pleaded guilty Wednesday to misdemeanor charges and agreed to register for life as a sex offender.

Julio Cesar Garcia, 22, pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of secretly filming an adult and a misdemeanor charge of annoying or molesting a child.

Garcia's victims were in agreement with the guilty pleas, said Deputy District Attorney Tracy Prior.

Formal sentencing is scheduled for Feb. 24.

Prior said Garcia's iPhone contained about 2,100 images -- about 470 videos and the rest still images -- surreptitiously taken up the skirts and dresses of more than 100 girls and women ranging in age from about 15 to 35.

Garcia took photos of two teens, one at a bus stop in Escondido and another at a tire shop in Rancho Bernardo where he worked, according to the prosecutor.

The crimes took place at numerous businesses over about a yearlong period, beginning in October 2010. Many of the victims were waiting in sales lines and many were walking with male companions when the images were taken, Prior said.

It took detectives months to identify Garcia as the suspected perpetrator. Surveillance video of him and his vehicle helped police eventually track him down, authorities said.

In a separate case, Garcia pleaded guilty to felony DUI causing injury. The defendant drove over a center divider and crashed his vehicle head-on into another car, injuring four people, Prior said.

-City News Service