Harper College student charged with videotaping in women's bathroom

An Elk Grove Village man was arrested Wednesday for using a mobile phone camera to videotape women in a restroom at Harper College in Palatine, authorities said.

Authorities have charged Christopher Byers, 21, of the 1000 block of Florida Lane in Elk Grove Village, with unauthorized videotaping, a Class 4 felony carrying a penalty of up to three years in prison or probation.

Byers appeared at the Rolling Meadows courthouse Thursday morning where bond was set at $2,000, of which he posted 10 percent.

Authorities said Byers, a student at the college, was sitting in a stall of the women's restroom in the college's Building D at about 10:50 a.m. Wednesday, making a video recording of a female victim in the adjoining stall.

The roughly 32-year-old victim ran out and notified Harper College police, who found Byers still in the restroom stall with his cellphone, authorities said.

Byers admitted to police that he videotaped different women by holding his cellphone under the stall wall, Cook County state's attorney's spokesman Andy Conklin said.

A preliminary hearing for Byers, a business major who has been a full-time student at Harper since the fall of 2009, is set for Nov. 27 at the Rolling Meadows courthouse.

“The judge ordered him to stay off campus until he is authorized to return by the college administration,” college spokesman Phil Burdick said.

College administrators are waiting for a formal report before deciding how to proceed. Byers could be expelled, suspended, placed on conditional enrollment or probation, Burdick said.

“It really is determined by the severity of the offense,” he said. “The biggest concern is always the safety of the students.”