30-01-2025
‘This type of activity is frankly predatory': TN bill would strengthen penalties for nonconsensual camera recordings
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) — Two months ago, dozens of women learned a Nashville man, identified as Matthew Vollmer, allegedly recorded their sexual interactions with a hidden camera inside an alarm clock.
Many of the women, who said they were being recorded without their knowledge, weren't able to press criminal charges because the videos were more than a year old and the statute of limitations had expired.
Now, a new bill filed in the Tennessee legislature called the Voyeurism Victim's Act could allow more victims to pursue justice.
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'That type of activity is frankly predatory and it should come with greater punishment than this offense normally does,' said State Senator Jeff Yarbro (D-Nashville), the bill's sponsor.
If passed, the law would change the statute of limitations for this crime to the time the illegal recordings were discovered, not the time they were made.
The law would also strengthen the unlawful photography charge from a misdemeanor to a felony in egregious cases and authorize orders of protection for the victims.
'I feel like our legislators are listening to us and they care, and they're committed to this issue, and so to see that bill being filed is really sort of just the first step in the process, but it's kind of this feeling very loud and clear that our legislators support what we're doing,' said Erika Thomas, who said she was recorded by Vollmer without her knowledge or consent.
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According to State Senator Yarbro, the bill has bipartisan support and would allow state law to keep up with advances in technology.
'A lot of these laws that deal with invasion of privacy and cameras were designed for an era before everyone carried a smartphone in their pockets, before cameras were remarkably cheap and could be made very small and hidden,' Yarbro explained.
Thomas is one of the women who could not file a criminal case against Vollmer because the statute of limitations had already expired, but she hopes this proposed law will help future victims seek justice.
'Having conversations about intimate recordings of myself is kind of humiliating and embarrassing, but I'm trying to channel those feelings of distress and those feelings of discomfort into something that's proactive and that will help other people,' Thomas told News 2.
Vollmer is facing eight counts of unlawful photography and is set to be in court for his criminal hearing in March.
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