LOS ANGELES — A former employee at a Signal Hill Applebee’s restaurant entered a no contest plea for recording fellow employees in the bathroom.
Edgar Augusto García Franco, 49, of Long Beach entered an open plea to 38 misdemeanor counts of unauthorized invasion of privacy videotaping or photographing a victim. An open plea is a plea that was not negotiated with prosecutors.
Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge John D. Lord immediately sentenced García Franco to 360 days in jail and a suspended sentence of 17 years and 9 months in jail. The defendant will be on summary probation for the duration of the suspended sentence and will have to register as a sex offender during that same time period.
Franco also was ordered to stay away from any Applebee’s restaurant and the victims named in the complaint during the probationary period.
García Franco recorded eight women and one man between July and August in the employee bathroom of the restaurant located on the 800 block of East Spring Street.
