VA employee charged with hiding cameras in women's restroom

A Veterans Affairs employee was charged Wednesday with five counts of misdemeanor voyeurism, four months after authorities said they found two cameras hidden in a women's restroom at a VA office near the White House.

The Federal Protective Service, which polices government facilities, was called to a VA office building about a half-mile east of the White House after a woman discovered a camera underneath the stall next to hers on Jan. 25, according to investigative documents filed in Washington, D.C., Superior Court.

The woman told investigators that she saw the suspect, Alex Greenlee, 24, outside the restroom on his cellphone and that he asked whether she was OK and whether he could go in the restroom to get paper towels.

According to an affidavit filed in support of the arrest, the woman said that just an hour earlier, she'd seen Greenlee leave the same restroom on the 12th floor and that when she asked him why he was inside the women's restroom, Greenlee responded that there were no paper towels in the men's restroom.

Officers seized the camera on Jan. 25 but didn't search for any others, according to the affidavit. But three days later, another woman found a second camera attached to the underside of a toilet in the same restroom, it said.

That led investigators to question Greenlee, who said he had no knowledge of the cameras. But when investigators went through the cameras, they found evidence showing Greenlee placing and maneuvering both of them on the restroom stalls, leading to a follow-up interview last month, according to the affidavit.

Five women in all were recorded, one of them several times, according to the affidavit.

Greenlee was arrested Tuesday and was free on personal recognizance pending an initial status hearing on June 25. If he's convicted, he could face a year in prison and a $2,500 fine.