A McHenry man has been arrested after he allegedly secretly recorded men who were using the restroom at the McHenry County College in Crystal Lake, less than two months after another suspect was arrested for a similar crime.
Jerardo Hernandez-Alonso, 20, of McHenry, was charged with three counts of unauthorized videotaping, a Class 4 felony.
A criminal complaint filed in McHenry County Circuit Court alleges Hernandez-Alonso used his “cellphone/recording device” to record three men in one day on October 11, 2024.
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 Hernandez-Alonso recorded the first victim without his consent while he was in a bathroom stall by placing his recording device over the top of the dividing wall from the adjacent stall.
The complaint said the first victim was a male Hispanic subject and the other two were male white subjects, all three of whom are unidentified.
The three victims’ private areas were exposed and seen in the secretly recorded videos, the complaint said.
Court documents indicate the discovery was made by police locating the videos electronically and not the victims reporting the incidents to police.
Hernandez-Alonso’s cell phone was also seized and forensically searched, according to the Sycamore Police Department.
The analysis showed evidence of unlawful recording incidents that took place outside of Sycamore’s jurisdiction more than a year prior to early last month.
The Sycamore Police Department said they notified the appropriate law enforcement agency in that jurisdiction and a separate investigation was initiated.
The department did not say publicly which agency that was but the recent charges in McHenry County indicate it was for the McHenry County College bathroom recordings.
The seizure of Hernandez-Alonso’s cellphone in Sycamore came after the Sycamore Police Department responded on March 1 to the Meijer for a complaint of a male subject unlawfully recording another male in the store’s restroom.
The suspect, later identified as Hernandez-Alonso, left the store prior to police officers’ arrival.
The victim took a photo of Hernandez-Alonso and the vehicle he was driving, which aided investigators, police officials said.
Police later interviewed Hernandez-Alonso at his residence where he ultimately confessed. He was charged in DeKalb County with one count of unauthorized videotaping, a Class 4 felony, and released with a notice to appear in court.
Hernandez-Alonso was charged on Thursday in McHenry County and has been taken into custody.
He is the second person in less than two months to be charged with unlawfully recording at the McHenry County College.
Alejandro A. Zavala-Ramirez, 25, of Woodstock, was charged 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 while they were separately in bathroom stalls.
Hernandez-Alonso has been held in the McHenry County Jail since his arrest last week.
Hernandez-Alonso was released from custody with pre-trial release conditions due to the offense being non-detainable under the Illinois SAFE-T Act.
He is scheduled to appear in court again on April 15 for a status of preliminary hearing.
Editor’s Note: Police in Sycamore spelled the defendant’s name as Jerardo Hernandez Alonzo, while police in McHenry County spelled his name as Jerardo Hernandez-Alonso. It is unclear which is the correct spelling.