A licensed social worker has been taken into custody after he failed to appear for his first court hearing after being released when he was charged with recording women using the bathroom at the McHenry County College in Crystal Lake.
Alejandro A. Zavala-Ramirez, 25, of Woodstock, was charged in February with three counts of unauthorized videotaping, a Class 4 felony.
A criminal complaint filed in McHenry County Circuit Court alleges Zavala-Ramirez used his cellphone to record three women in one day on February 12.
The incidents occurred at McHenry County College, 8900 Northwest Highway in Crystal Lake, and the McHenry County College Police Department investigated the case.
The complaint said Zavala-Ramirez recorded the three victims over the span of less than an hour.
Zavala-Ramirez recorded the first victim without her consent while she was in a bathroom stall around 3:04 p.m. by placing his phone over the top of the dividing wall from the adjacent stall, the complaint said.
The complaint said Zavala-Ramirez did the same to the two other victims, the second at 3:44 p.m. and the third at 3:54 p.m.
McHenry County College Police Chief Tom Kretschmer declined to provide information on the case, deferring to college administration officials.
“The College has been made aware of an unwanted videotaping incident that took place last week on campus. All impacted individuals have been contacted, and the incident is being addressed, posing no additional risk to our campus community,” the school said in a statement at the time.
“As there may be ongoing legal developments, we cannot share any additional information at this time. Thank you for your understanding,” the statement added.
Zavala-Ramirez is a licensed social worker, according to the U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. He obtained the license in August 2022 and it remains active.
He listed his primary practice address in his registration as the Pioneer Center For Human Services in McHenry. The center declined to release employment information for Zavala-Ramirez when contacted.
Zavala-Ramirez was taken into the custody of the McHenry County Jail on February 17 and held for an Initial Appearance Court hearing.
He appeared for the hearing on February 18 where he was released from custody due to the charges being non-detainable under the Illinois SAFE-T Act.
McHenry County Judge Cynthia Lamb ordered Zavala-Ramirez to have no contact with the three victims and not go to McHenry County Community College.
The McHenry County College has not said whether Zavala-Ramirez was an employee or student at the campus.
Zavala-Ramirez was ordered to appear in court again on March 18 for a status of preliminary hearing.
He failed to appear at the court hearing — his first since being released — and McHenry County Judge Mark Gerhardt issued a failure to appear warrant.
Zavala-Ramirez also had a second warrant issued for him in a separate felony case that was set for a petition to revoke hearing on the same day.
He is on conditional discharge in that case but prosecutors are seeking to revoke it and have him re-sentenced.
Zavala-Ramirez was additionally scheduled to appear in court on March 5 in a separate case for driving on a suspended driver’s license in Woodstock and he also failed to appear in that case, leading to a third outstanding warrant.
Court records show Zavala-Ramirez was taken into the custody of the McHenry County Jail early Saturday morning. He is scheduled to appear in court on Monday morning.