NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — Imagine a person you love betrays your trust — by recording your most intimate moments. A Nashville man is charged with unlawful photography — accused of secretly recording sex with several girlfriends.
One of them was shocked to find the videos and called the Metro Nashville Police Department. She calls it a criminal betrayal of trust.
“I’m just in shock...you recognized yourself," detailed Christiana Werner. "Him and me in intimate moments. I had no idea he recorded."
She could not believe what she was seeing. She and her boyfriend of several months, Matthew Vollmer, were talking about marriage.
He had met her parents.
“He absolutely swept me off my feet. He was charming, sweet, sincere gentleman and fun,” said Werner.
They were very close. Werner said Vollmer even gave her a key to his apartment and shared his computer password, telling her he had nothing to hide.
So, this past summer when Vollmer was out of town Wenner logged on out of curiosity.
“I saw a file with my name on it," she said. "I thought it was going to be love poems or pictures of us.”
Instead, Werner found a sexually explicit video of her and Vollner.
She looked in the bedroom and found an alarm clock that contained a hidden camera. Then, back at the computer, Werner discovered more files with women’s names and explicit videos.
She reported it to police, who charged Vollmer with eight counts of unlawful photography involving a total of four women.
There were others, but the one-year statute of limitations had expired.
“It’s unlawful to possess that secretly recorded material like that, the statute is clear,” said NewsChannel 5 legal analyst Nick Leonardo.
But he said the charge is not a felony which stunned Werner.
“I just couldn’t believe it’s a misdemeanor,” she said.
Werner and the other women plan to lobby lawmakers to extend the one-year statute of limitations on unlawful photography and toughen the law for these crimes.
At least one civil lawsuit has been filed seeking damages. Vollmer is free on $40,000 bond.
His attorney declined to comment other than to say the recordings were of acts between consenting adults, and there's no allegation that the videos were disseminated.
Vollmer is charged with misdemeanors. But, the investigation continues.
If any evidence surfaces that he shared or disseminated the video, the charges could be upgraded to felonies.
Vollmer will be in court later this month.
Do you have more information about this story? You can email me at nick.beres@newschanne5.com
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