Berkeley man taped party guests in bathroom, police say
Suspect Andrew Farago apologized to guests for his "tremendous lapse in judgement," authorities wrote.
A prominent member of San Francisco's cartoon community was arrested earlier this month after recording birthday party guests, adults and children, using the bathroom at his Berkeley home, according to court papers.
Andrew Farago is a pop culture writer and historian, in addition to serving as curator for San Francisco’s Cartoon Art Museum, according to his LinkedIn page and the museum website.
The allegations date back to May 23 when Farago co-hosted a birthday party at his home in South Berkeley, according to court papers.
During the party, a woman found Farago's cellphone secretly recording video in the bathroom — along with a video that showed him "setting the phone up, concealing it with a towel, and aiming it to record people’s genitalia as they used the restroom," Berkeley police wrote.
When the woman confronted Farago, he "made admissions and also stated that he had deleted the videos" from his phone and the cloud, police wrote.
He later emailed party guests to express remorse, according to court papers.
"I hid my phone in our bathroom for the purpose of spying on our guests, my closest friends in the world. I had never done anything like that before and don’t know what possessed me to do it," he wrote, according to police.
Farago continued, according to court papers: "This was an inexcusable violation of your privacy and our friendship and I am prepared to face whatever consequences will come from this tremendous lapse in judgement."
Berkeley police ultimately secured an arrest warrant alleging 20 counts of invasion of privacy by using a hidden camera to secretly record someone under their clothing, police wrote.
Officers arrested Farago at his home June 3 and served a search warrant, seizing about a dozen electronic devices during the operation, according to court papers.
To date, charges have not been filed. Police said they could not release additional details due to the ongoing investigation.
Farago did not respond before publication to a request for comment.
