Police in Arizona have submitted 100 recommended charges against a former school surveillance officer over claims girls were secretly filmed while changing at a high school. Tempe Police have asked prosecutors to consider 98 counts of voyeurism and two counts of bestiality against 28-year-old Antony Nikai Cruz.
The case is linked to a privacy scandal at Corona del Sol High School in Tempe, Arizona. The Maricopa County Attorney’s Office confirmed the new recommended charges were submitted on October 7, but said there is no timeline yet on whether they will be formally filed.
Camera in dance room
The case centres on the school’s dance room, which was used as a temporary changing area while the main girls’ locker room was closed for renovations over the summer. Students, mostly aged 13 to 15, were instructed to change there.
Unbeknown to them, a security camera had been installed in the dance room in 2024 to monitor exterior door access, ABC15 Arizona reported. Staff and students reportedly noticed it and asked for it to be switched off for privacy reasons, and school administrators believed it had been disabled.
Footage downloaded
However, investigators say the camera inadvertently remained active and recording. Police allege Cruz, who was hired as a district-wide surveillance officer in July 2026, did not report that the system was capturing images of undressed minors.
Instead, they claim he repeatedly accessed the footage over several weeks and downloaded clips ranging from four minutes to two hours onto external hard drives, AZ Family reported. An internal audit by a security supervisor is said to have flagged suspicious video log activity, with investigators alleging Cruz even accessed the feeds remotely from his Phoenix home on weekends.
Victims identified
Cruz was arrested in August and initially indicted on eight counts of voyeurism, which he has denied. But police say the investigation expanded dramatically, and officers have now identified 38 victims.
A school district spokesperson said the additional voyeurism counts are based on how many times a victim appeared across the downloaded videos, meaning one pupil appearing in multiple clips can lead to multiple charges. The two recommended bestiality counts came after investigators executing search warrants on Cruz’s digital devices and property allegedly uncovered separate evidence of animal abuse.
Tempe Police said the bestiality allegation “was not related to the school and was discovered through other evidence”. The district also reportedly contacted parents to stress the bestiality accusations were not linked to campus or students.
Cruz remains in custody on a $100,000 cash-only bond (about £80,000) and is due back in court on October 20 on the original indictment, Ktar reported.
