Couple Wins $1 Million in Locker Room Voyeurism Case

A Superior Court judge in Bellingham, Washington awarded a woman and her husband $1 million in damages on Tuesday after they sued a longtime city employee and Special Olympics coach who admitted to videotaping the woman and her female coworkers while they used a staff changing area at the Arne Hanna Aquatic Center

The unidentified woman told the court that the man's voyeurism caused her serious mental anguish and it had caused problems with her and her husband's marriage and lifestyle. She also said the invasion of privacy also diminished her love for swimming due to the emotional pain and anxiety she feels while changing into a swimsuit. 

"I had a lot of emotions going through my head, super angry, I felt guilty for a weird reason, just very confused because that seemed like a big shock, and unlike him," she says. "I felt like I was sexually assaulted but it felt like I didn’t have physical evidence to say I was, it was very confusing."

Judge Raquel Montoya-Lewis awarded the woman $750,000 and another $250,000 to the woman's husband, commenting that she believed the couple's attorney, Steve Chance, hadn't asked for enough money. Chance had asked the court for no less than $450,000 for the woman and $150,000 for her husband. 

"You are a survivor of sexual assault, don't let anybody tell you different," Judge Raquel Montoya-Lewis told the woman. 

The woman and her husband sued the city of Bellingham and David Alan Frick, 51, in 2017, after learning she was one of the women recorded by Frick. The lawsuit alleged that Frick would record the women and other aquatic center employees while they used the bathroom and staff locker rooms to change. 

The court dismissed the suit against the city itself, saying Bellingham didn't benefit from Frick's actions. Chance says he plans on appealing that decision. 

Frick  began working part time at the pool beginning in 1996 and became a full time employee in 2007, the Bellingham Herald reports. Most recently, he had been working as an aquatic instructor, teaching people "of all age ranges." 

Five other women have sued Frick and the city.

Frick is also facing criminal charges of voyeurism and possessing child pornography according to the Herald. He's currently out on $20,000 bail. 

Photo: Getty Images



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