A Bethel School District teacher is accused of hiding a spy camera in a home he shared with his stepdaughters that captured explicit photos of them and their friends without their knowledge.
Pierce County prosecutors charged Christian Dale Williams, 48, with two counts of first-degree voyeurism and two counts of second-degree possession of depiction of minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct, court records show.
Williams has served as a career and technical education teacher at Spanaway Lake High School for seven years. He previously was an IGNITE Worldwide award winner for 2019-2020. IGNITE is an organization that focuses on gender equity in STEM.
He is on administrative leave, according to the Bethel School District.
A plea of not guilty was entered on Williams' behalf at his arraignment on Thursday. Pierce County Superior Court Commissioner Philip Thornton set his bail at $75,000.
Williams is prohibited from having contact with minors. Thornton also ruled that Williams cannot go to schools or playgrounds. If released on bond, he is not allowed to access any electronic devices that access the internet.
Charging details
An investigation into Williams began when his wife reported to 911 dispatch on Aug. 23 that her 14-year-old and 11-year-old daughters found a nanny camera charging in the bathroom of their Lake Tapps home. It initially looked like a charging port, which later appeared to have a camera inside it. Deputies found a memory card in the camera.
The wife said the camera did not belong to her and was concerned that Williams was responsible for it, according to charging documents. She mentioned that she was going through a separation from Williams and was planning to move out in the upcoming weeks.
She told a deputy almost a week later that Williams asked her if she knew where his "spy cam charger" was. He told her that he uses the camera to monitor his student's behavior, documents show. She was suspicious of Williams and said only the children used the bathroom where the camera was found to be plugged in, documents show.
The wife's brother took the daughters to live with their dad in Auburn. Their uncle later dropped off the camera to deputies, court documents show.
About 290,000 images were found on the storage card of the camera. There were also about 97 videos. Several of the images showed teenage girls in "multiple stages of undress" at the home. The ex-wife was shown some of the images and confirmed one of girls was her daughter. She also recognized her daughter's friends who were about 14 years old.
Deputies noted that in the videos it seemed that the girls were unaware they were being recorded. In one video that was recording the stepdaughter's bedroom, Williams appeared to be taking the camera down, documents show.
The images and videos were allegedly taken from multiple devices, including the spy camera and Williams' Google Pixel 7 phone, court documents show.
Williams' wife alleged that he would bring home cell phones and other devices he confiscated from his students. The deputy wrote that suspects engaged in child-sex crimes will often store images/videos in several electronic devices, ranging from laptops to cell phones, documents show.
Williams was arrested at Spanaway Lake High School on Wednesday at his classroom. The school district told The News Tribune that the school was put on a modified lockdown during the arrest.
In an interview with detectives, Williams spoke about his marital issues. He said that his wife was concerned about his relationship with her daughter. She alluded to him having an inappropriate romantic relationship with her daughter, documents show.
Williams said he bought the camera so he could monitor his classroom for theft. He claimed that he brought the camera back home when he realized he was not allowed to have it in the classroom, documents show.
He was "adamant" that he did not leave the camera/charging block to record explicit images of his stepdaughters or friends, documents show. Williams said that the girls were not aware the charging block could record. He also said the camera "floated" around the house and it was possible his family used it.
When detectives asked if any inappropriate or images would be found on any of Williams' other devices, he said "no" or "I hope not."
There is no information at this time that anyone at the high school was victim of Williams' alleged crimes, according to the Pierce County Sheriff's Department.
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