2014 Sep 30: Tucker gets three years probation for recording student in shower

• 30 Sep 2014
• Written by  Rebecca Guterman

A Potomac man was sentenced to three years of probation in District Court on Friday for recording an exchange student while she was taking a shower.

Darrien Lamont Tucker, 40, a physical education teacher at the McLean School of Maryland in Potomac, pled guilty to two misdemeanor counts of visual surveillance in a private place and with prurient intent. He was given three years of probation with a one-year suspended sentence for each count, meaning any violation of his probation could result in two years of jail time.

The sentence also requires Tucker to attend therapy and have his computers regularly tested for “pornographic surveillance material,” according to Ramon Korionoff, spokesperson for the State Attorney’s office.

“This plea not only holds him accountable for his crimes but also provides the community safety,” Korionoff said in an email.

Defense attorney Mike Rothman, Tucker’s attorney, said Tucker wants to move past the incidents.

“Mr. Tucker is a member of the community and he is eager to move forward at this time,” Rothman said.

Tucker was charged in June with five counts of visual surveillance after the 18-year-old exchange student he was hosting noticed him slipping his iPad under the door of the bathroom during her shower.

The student then brought her phone into the bathroom to record the incidents and the third time placed a video camera outside the bathroom that captured Tucker sliding the iPad under the door, according to a Montgomery County Police press release. Tucker later confirmed in an interview with police he had recorded the student.

Three of the counts of visual surveillance were dismissed in court.

Helpline US Department of State

1-866-283-9090 (24 hours a day, 7 days a week) The Department of State activated the helpline to ensure the health and safety of its exchange participants. Students have a right to be treated fairly and to report abuse without retaliation or threat of program cancellation. (Dep of State)

Blind trust in exchange organisations

You would not send your child to a house at the end of your street if you knew nothing about the person living there. Yet on the strength of a glossy brochure, the payment in some cases of vast sums of money, and an assumption that someone else has asked the right questions, we send our children thousands of miles across the world to stay with strangers.

The companies, organisations and individuals that abuse this blind trust cannot be allowed to continue to profit from it and we must all take responsibility for the care and safety of our young people. (Chris Gould)