Suspect in hidden-camera investigation caught six years later

Authorities in California this week arrested the man who allegedly placed a hidden camera in a Northfield school bathroom approximately more than six years ago.

David Garcia-Espinal, 46, was announced in 2020 as the Northfield Police Department’s primary suspect in the investigation but reportedly had fled the country. He was arrested Feb. 19 in Los Angeles, according to a release from the department.

The release says that Northfield police recently received information Garcia-Espinal was in Southern California and began working with law enforcement in San Diego and Los Angeles. The U.S. Marshals Service was also involved, according to the release.

Garcia-Espinal reportedly is being held in Los Angeles as authorities coordinate on extradition to Illinois, where he faces multiple charges of unauthorized video taping.

With the extraditing and processing still ongoing, Northfield Police Department declined to comment further on its investigation.

The recording occurred inside Sunset Ridge School, one of two public schools in Sunset Ridge District 29.

“District 29 is deeply appreciative of the coordinated efforts and persistence of the law enforcement agencies involved in the apprehension of Mr. Garcia-Espinal,” Superintendent Dr. Ed Stange wrote in an email to The Record. “We are hopeful that justice will be served on behalf of our students and staff.

Background

On Jan. 14, 2020, a Sunset Ridge employee discovered a cellphone taped and recording through a small hole inside a trash can in a staff bathroom, according to previous Record reporting.

The cellphone, which belonged to Garcia-Espinal, reportedly contained sensitive footage of district students and staff members.

Local police quickly identified a suspect, Garcia-Espinal, then a Highwood resident and an employee of two vendors, Organic Life and Smith Maintenance Company, contracted by Sunset Ridge District 29.

He regularly worked in Sunset Ridge School (Grades 4-8), district officials said at the time.

Stange told district families in a 2020 letter that background checks, completed and provided by the vendors, did not reveal any criminal convictions for Garcia-Espinal. The school, though, did not perform additional background reviews.

Stange’s letter also said, however, that officials had since learned that Garcia-Espinal was arrested in 2012 for allegedly touching himself in a public restroom and was also charged with possessing fake social security numbers.

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