Brookline Restaurant's Alleged Peeping Tom Held On $7,500 Bail

BROOKLINE, MA — A judge ordered a Weston man accused of secretly video taping women in the bathroom at a Brookline restaurant during the past three years held on $7,500 bail. Tze Ping Chung, 63, pleaded not guilty to 15 counts of bathroom-related spying on women at Taam China on Harvard Street.

Chung was also recently indicted by a Middlesex Grand Jury on what appear to be unrelated child rape and child porn charges. He's currently out on $100,000 bail in that case.

In Brookline via video conference with a judge in Quincy (and after some short technical difficulties) the judge said that if Chung, who is already wearing a GPS device, posts bail, he will not be allowed within 100 yards of the restaurant, permitted to have a passport or have contact with victims.

There was another series of charges brought forward accusing him this year that included aggravated rape of a child and photographing sex parts, but those were dropped, according to court records.

Brookline police brought Chung, wearing jeans and a t-shirt, from the Brookline jail to the basement of the Brookline District Courthouse Friday morning.

His attorney Frank Santisi argued that Chung's image should not be shown in court to protect the integrity of the investigation in the event witnesses needed to identify him. This came after several outlets, including Patch, had already snapped photos of him. Assistant District Attorney Moira Daly objected, arguing that identification was not an issue, and the evidence came directly from the defendant's personal iPad or iPhone.

The judge granted Santisi's motion, and Chung spent the rest of the arraignment on nearby stairs that come up from the courthouse's basement.

Chung is charged with 15 counts of photographing sexual or intimate parts without the person's consent. Each of those charges carry up to two and a half years prison and a fine of as much as $5,000.

Brookline police told the Patch they wanted to stress that none of the Brookline-related charges involved children or men.

"We've been getting a lot of phone calls asking about that," said Lt. Phil Harrington.

On Tuesday, April 10, Weston Police contacted Brookline to let them know during their own investigation into the man they found "recordings of a sexual nature he had made," according to the police report.

Detectives found images of a number of women in various states of undress in the restroom at the restaurant and using the toilet. Images captured private parts without consent, according to the court document.

Brookline detectives found the images on the seized iPads and iPhone contained multiple images of one employee taken at the restaurant bathroom.

When they arrived, police recognized the woman, who Chung told them was his girlfriend. The woman told police she'd had an on-again, off-again relationship with him she ended some six years earlier.

She told police through a translator she'd worked at Taam China for eight years. She confirmed to police that the images were her and that she had not given permission for anyone to take them.

Chung was just indicted separately by Middlesex County District grand jury sometime between April 24 and May 29 on multiple charges of aggravated rape of a child, forcible rape of a child, indecent assault and battery on a child, posing a child in a state of nudity, possession of child pornography, and secretly recording a person, outside of Brookline.

Those charges led to the uncovering of the video surveillance in the bathroom in Brookline.

This is not the first time something like this has happened in Brookline. Back in 2015, a Zaftig's employee was arrested and charged with putting a hidden camera in a bathroom at that popular establishment.

Taam China is in the JFK Crossing neighborhood of Brookline next to Kupel's Bakery. Chung, who also goes by "Andy" opened Taam China, a Glatt Kosher Chinese restaurant in 1997. At the moment, this is the only Kosher Chinese restaurant in a town with a strong Orthodox Jewish community and many who keep kosher.

Patch broke the story yesterday:

Man Secretly Taped Patrons In Restaurant Bathroom: Police

Weston Man Indicted on Child Rape, Porn Charges

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Photo by Jenna Fisher/Patch