BOSTON, April 17, 2015—A South End man was arraigned yesterday on charges he filmed a stranger in the bathroom of a clothing store, Suffolk County District Attorney Daniel F. Conley said.

ROCCO COLLELA (D.O.B. 3/18/85) was arraigned in Boston Municipal Court on a charge of videotaping an unsuspecting person in the nude in connection with the February incident near Downtown Crossing.  Judge Thomas Horgan released Collela on his own recognizance with orders to stay away from the location of the offense.

Assistant District Attorney Eric Anderson told the court that Boston Police on Feb. 26 were called to Marshalls on Washington Street, where a 25-year-old Southborough man reported that while using the store’s restroom he observed an individual kneeling in an adjacent stall and recording the victim with a phone.  When the victim shouted, the individual fled.  A store surveillance camera showed the then-unknown suspect – who at about 6’ tall and 190 pounds with a bald head cut a distinctive figure – entering the bathroom approximately an hour prior to the incident and then running out and onto Washington Street immediately after he was observed by the victim.

Officers searched the area but were not able to locate the suspect.

Marshalls security staff contacted Boston Police again on March 9 to report that the man had returned to the store, where he spent about 45 minutes in the men’s room, and was being followed by security personnel.  A security guard followed him to a nearby gym.

There, officers questioned the man identified as Collela.  He allegedly made post-Miranda statements to police admitting that he had used his iPhone to film the victim inside the Marshalls restroom the week prior, prosecutors said.

Officers seized Collela’s phone and sought a complaint.  He was summonsed for arraignment and walked into court this week.

Collela was represented by Peter Elikann.  He returns to court June 3.

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All defendants are presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.