CCTV footage capturing William Mendoza – one of ex-US President Barack Obama’s former senior officials – taking an upskirt video of a woman at a metro station at the nation’s capital has been going viral after it was released online yesterday.
While the incident occurred in July 2016, interest in the case has remained alive since Mendoza was only slapped with a US$100 fine, 90-day suspended jail term and one-year probation after he pleaded guilty to attempted voyeurism later that year.
Mendoza resigned from his post as Obama’s director of the White House Initiative on American Indian and Alaska Native Education in Nov 2016, after earning a hefty US$140,000 a year.
Interest in the case grew yesterday when footage from the incident was newly released yesterday. The surveillance clips were compiled during the Metro Police Transit Department investigation into Mendoza’s conduct:
In the video, Mendoza can be seen following a woman as she goes up an escalator before bending down and snapping a picture up the woman’s skirt, with his cell phone’s light turned on.
Mendoza was apprehended after the victim and three others filed police reports over his behaviour.
Interestingly, the Obama administration did not disclose information about Mendoza’s arrest and conviction. UK publication The Daily Mail, which reported on the matter, had to file a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to access the information.