A former California State Parks superintendent has been accused of secretly filming 23 state lifeguards or other workers inside an employee locker room and sharing at least some of the images with others.
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Kevin Pearsall, 59, a Long Beach resident, is facing five felony counts of eavesdropping and more than two dozen misdemeanor counts of secretly filming and unlawful dissemination of private recordings, according to a Wednesday, June 24 statement from Orange County District Attorney’s Office.
Pearsall turned himself in on Tuesday, June 23 after prosecutors obtained a warrant for his arrest. A judge released Persall on his own recognizance.
“Instead of protecting his employees, Pearsall used his position to spy on the men who worked for him while they were in the place where they should have been the safest and then (shared) those intimate images of his victims,” Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer said in the statement. “These victims had their privacy violated in such a disgusting way, and we will do everything we can to ensure they receive the justice they deserve.”
The investigation began in July 2025 when a California State Park officer found a USB stick in the men’s locker room at the Bolsa Chica State Beach Lifeguard Headquarters in Huntington Beach. After realizing the USB stick — which contained a hidden camera — included apparently surreptitious videos of state employees undressing, it was turned over to the California Highway Patrol.
Authorities believe the hidden camera captured both audio and video in the employee locker room from August 2024 until it was discovered. The facility is not open to the public but used by full-time employees, seasonal lifeguards, office and maintenance staffers and park aides.
Investigators determined that Pearsall was responsible for placing the hidden camera, according to prosecutors. Pearsall was a sworn law enforcement officer overseeing the management and operations of local state park land.
In his most recent role, Pearsall oversaw all of the Orange Coast District, which encompasses Huntington State Beach, Bolsa Chica State Beach, Corona del Mar State Beach, Crystal Cove State Park, Doheny State Beach, San Clemente State Beach and San Onofre State Beach.
Pearsall was placed on administrative leave after the hidden-camera footage was discovered, officials said, and then retired.
The CHP investigators determined that 23 different men had their “genitals or buttocks” captured by the hidden camera without their knowledge, the District Attorney’s Office said.
Prosecutors also allege that Pearsall sent several photographs the hidden camera captured of nude or partially nude men to two others. And prosecutors say he also made “sexually charged comments” about his employees’ genitals.
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If convicted as charged, he faces up to 18 years and eight months in Orange County jail, according to the District Attorney’s Office.
A civil lawsuit filed in Orange County Superior Court by a state park lifeguard allegedly among those surreptitiously recorded was announced on Wednesday. The lawsuit — which names Pearsall and the California Department of Parks and Recreation — alleges that the lifeguard was subjected to sexual harassment and a hostile work environment.
The lifeguard’s attorney said his client was one of the victims identified by prosecutors and among those whose images Pearsall was accused of sharing with other people.
The civil lawsuit alleges that Pearsall “funneled” employees to the part of the building where the camera was hidden, encouraging them to change in that area by claiming it was more private.
Employees knew there was some sort of investigation into Pearsall after a law enforcement raid on his office occurred in July 2025 and computers were seized and electronic-device-sniffing dogs were brought into the facility, according to the civil lawsuit.
But the lawsuit, which doesn’t name the lifeguard, alleges that it wasn’t until late 2025 that the lifeguard learned of the hidden camera and not until early this year when he learned that his images had been captured. That has left the lifeguard “under continuing stress,” the lawsuit adds.
“Pearsall took advantage of his position to subject my client to appalling voyeurism because California State Parks did not adequately look into red flags indicating he was a problem supervisor,” said Ron Zambrano, an attorney with West Coast Employment Lawyers who is representing the lifeguard. “My client … puts his life on the line to protect others as a sworn officer, was singled out for this disturbing invasion of privacy by his supervisor, Pearsall, who shared images of him with people outside the agency where both men worked. …
“It’s nothing short of sick and a betrayal as (the lifeguard) looked up to Pearsall as a mentor,” the attorney added.
It wasn’t clear from court records if Pearsall had hired or been assigned an attorney for the criminal charges or the civil lawsuit.
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