Man Admits To Secretly Videotaping Stepdaughters

HONOLULU -- A Pearl City man Tuesday admitted secretly videotaping his stepdaughters in one of the state's first felony invasion of privacy cases.

Responding to fears about cameras small enough to hide anywhere, Hawaii passed one of the nation's first video-voyeur laws.

Gary Kaneshiro, 37, may be the first person the invasion of privacy law sends to prison. He told the judge he is already seeing two counselors.

Last year, at his Pearl City home, Kaneshiro set up a video camera in his grown stepdaughters' closets. He got caught almost immediately and pleaded no contest Tuesday morning.

"He realizes it was foolhardy and it was sick and he's taken responsibility. He's lost his job, he lost his family," public defender Todd Eddins said.

Even as smaller and smaller cameras may encourage more invasions of privacy, many video voyeurs make the same mistake -- they save the tape. In this case, the tape was the evidence prosecutors needed, KITV 4 News reported.

"He recorded each victim within a stage of dressing or undressing. He also records himself installing the camera in their rooms without permission," city deputy prosecutor Tina Zipp said.

He faces up to five years in prison, but because he has no criminal record, Kaneshiro hopes the judge will put him on probation instead of in prison. Because the law is new, lawyers could argue over whether he also must register as a sex offender.