MN Man With Decades Of Peeping Convictions Charged Again Near U Of M

HENNEPIN COUNTY, MN — A 55-year-old Rochester man with a long record of spying into homes has been charged again after police say he was caught holding an iPad up to an open bathroom window in a Minneapolis neighborhood packed with student housing.

John David Searle was charged Wednesday, Oct. 7, in Hennepin County District Court with one felony count of interference with privacy, previous conviction, according to a criminal complaint. The charge carries a maximum penalty of two years in prison and a $5,000 fine.

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Minneapolis police responded to a report of a prowler on the 800 block of Weeks Avenue SE on Monday, Oct. 5, according to the complaint. The area is largely student housing, and many homes there have first-floor bedrooms and bathrooms with windows facing outside, the complaint states.

One witness told officers a man with an iPad was photographing neighbors inside a bathroom at a home on the block. A second witness showed officers video of the suspect holding an iPad into an open window at the home. That witness went outside and yelled at the man, who ran through a backyard toward the train tracks behind the properties, according to the complaint.

Officers found a man matching the suspect's description riding a Lime scooter at 24th Avenue SE and Elm Street SE, just south of the home. He was later identified as Searle.

Searle told officers he was in the area visiting friends and that the iPad tucked in his waistband was for "school," the complaint says.

He agreed to let officers look at the device. Officers saw the iPad was on with the camera app open, and when an officer opened the photos app, the first video that played showed a naked woman drying off in a bathroom, according to the complaint.

Officers brought Searle back to the home, where the second witness identified him as the man he recorded on surveillance video and confronted earlier that night. Investigators also found Searle's vehicle parked on Weeks Avenue SE directly across the street from the home, the complaint says.

Searle has also been identified as a suspect in a similar July 2025 incident on 26th Avenue SE, where someone allegedly looked through the windows of a home and recorded videos of people in their bedroom and bathroom. Cell phone tower data placed Searle at that location when it happened, according to the complaint.

Prosecutors say Searle is linked to a number of similar cases from 2024 to 2026 in the Como, University of Minnesota campus and Marcy-Holmes areas. Those cases remain under investigation, and additional charges are likely, the complaint states.

The complaint lists a string of prior convictions for stalking and interference with privacy. In one case, Searle was convicted of recording a woman sleeping naked in her bedroom from outside her home. In another, he was convicted of filming college students in their bedrooms after making holes in their window screens. In a third, officers found videos of 11 different victims recorded inside a home.

Two of his earlier peeping convictions involved locations within a few blocks of the Weeks Avenue home, according to the complaint. His convictions for interference with privacy or stalking date back to 1995.

"Given the extent of Defendant's criminal history and current conduct, Defendant presents an extreme risk to the public safety," the complaint states.

Searle was in custody when the complaint was filed. Hennepin County District Judge Joseph R. Klein ordered him held on $200,000 bail. If released, Searle would be barred from the University of Minnesota campus and the Como and Marcy-Holmes neighborhoods, and could not use internet-capable devices without monitoring software, according to court records.