Hanford Old Navy sued over secret video of girl undressing
A girl who spotted a cellphone while it recorded a secret video of her undressing in an Old Navy store has sued the store, its parent company, The Gap Inc., and an employee now in jail.
The lawsuit, filed last week in Kings County Superior Court by lawyer Warren Paboojian of Fresno, alleges invasion of privacy, negligence and emotional distress, and seeks damages for pain and suffering.
On Sept. 28, 2014, an 11-year-old girl and her mother went to the Old Navy store and used a dressing room to try on clothes, the lawsuit said.
While the girl undressed, an Old Navy employee was in the adjacent stall and used his cellphone to take a video recording through the gap between the dividing wall and the floor, according to the lawsuit.
The cellphone captured a nude video of the girl, including her vaginal area, states the lawsuit, which identifies her by the initials R.M.
“At one point, R.M. noticed the cellular phone at the gap in the dressing room wall and attempted to move it and/or cover it up,” the lawsuit said.
She told her mother, who called Hanford police.
Police investigated and arrested store employee Jesse Leslie Gratton, 21. He is in the Kings County Jail on $535,000 bail.
Gratton’s cellphone also had images of other victims, but so far none have been identified, Hanford police Chief Parker Sever said. Some show the victims but not their faces, he said.
Gratton has been charged with more than two dozen felony counts of making and selling child pornography and could face 14 to 17 years in prison if found guilty, the Kings County District Attorney’s Office said.
The civil lawsuit alleges that Gratton spent much of his time at the store unaccounted for and that Old Navy had been warned of inappropriate behavior but did nothing.
The corporate office of The Gap Inc. said company policy is not to comment on active legal matters.
Lewis Griswold: 559-441-6104, @fb_LewGriswold
This story was originally published September 3, 2015 at 6:21 PM with the headline "Hanford Old Navy sued over secret video of girl undressing."