Westchester Insider: Westchester County District Attorney: FORMER FOREVER 21 EMPLOYEE PLEADS GUILTY TO UNLAWFUL SURVEILLANCE FOR RECORDING WOMEN IN DRESSING ROOMS.

 

WESTCHESTER COUNTY OFFICE OF THE DISTRICT ATTORNEY

MIRIAM E. ROCAH

 

 

***NEWS RELEASE***

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE – September 16, 2021

 

FORMER FOREVER 21 EMPLOYEE PLEADS GUILTY TO UNLAWFUL SURVEILLANCE FOR RECORDING WOMEN IN DRESSING ROOMS.

 

White Plains, NY -- Westchester County District Attorney Miriam E. Rocah announced that Bronx resident Heriberto Polanco pled guilty to unlawful surveillance on Tuesday after he secretly recorded women in dressing rooms while he worked at Forever 21 at the Cross County Center in Yonkers.

 

Polanco, 27, pled guilty on September 14, 2021, to three counts of Unlawful Surveillance in the Second Degree, a felony. According to his plea agreement, Polanco will receive probationary supervision with sex offender specific conditions and will be required to register as a sex offender.

 

On August 28, 2019, at approximately 7:15 p.m., a customer at Forever 21 at the Cross County Center in Yonkers was trying on clothes in a unisex dressing room when she noticed a cell phone sitting on top of a sneaker outside her room with the camera lens aimed directly at her. The victim screamed and immediately called Yonkers Police, who identified Polanco, an employee, as a suspect after the victim’s sister reported seeing Polanco running out of the dressing rooms.

 

On September 10, 2019, Polanco admitted to Yonkers Police that he placed his phone under the victim’s dressing room in an attempt to record her changing. He also admitted to recording other female customers in the Forever 21 dressing rooms without their permission during August 2019.

 

“The predatory behavior Heriberto Polanco displayed is incredibly disturbing and unacceptable,” DA Rocah said. “Everyone should have the expectation of privacy when they enter a changing room in a store, and Mr. Polanco violated that on numerous occasions.”

 

The case is before Judge Susan Cacace in Westchester County Court and is being prosecuted by Assistant District Attorney Marissa Morra-Wynn. Polanco is scheduled to be sentenced on December 7, 2021.