Local

Registered sex offender arrested for allegedly taking photos in public restroom – for third time

The Washington State Department of Corrections provided this photo to KIRO 7 News.

A man who’s been convicted twice of felony voyeurism, for shooting photos of men in public restrooms, is behind bars for allegedly doing it again, this time on a local college campus.

Thirty-year old Wei-Chen Lin, also known as “Jeffrey,” is a registered sex offender who, according to court documents released Tuesday afternoon, tried to take photos of a man while he used the restroom at Cascadia College in Bothell on Monday.

The allegations came as a complete shock to a friend who spoke on his behalf in court.  “I can’t believe this is happening,” Vincent Pierce told King County Superior Court Judge Mark Eide.  “I’ve known him for just over five years, and he’s a completely incredible person.”

However, Lin’s latest arrest is at least the third time he’s faced similar allegations.

In 2009, Lin was convicted of taking pictures of a man using the urinal at a bathroom near the food court at Bellevue’s Crossroads Mall.

He was sentenced to six months behind bars and ordered to obtain a sexual deviancy evaluation.  In 2007, Lin was convicted of a similar crime in a men’s bathroom in Snohomish County, and ordered to register as a sex offender.

The deputy prosecuting attorney on Tuesday mentioned both prior convictions when requesting Lin’s bail be set at $50,000. But Judge Eide released Lin on his own recognizance, perhaps because of his friend’s promises to the court.

“I don’t know what happened, I don’t know why it happened,” Pierce told the judge. “The only thing I know is that I will help him, and I will help the court to figure this out.”

According to court documents, Lin told security officers at Cascadia College that “he used his phone to look at the other stall because he believed the person in that stall had done something ‘bad’ like narcotics.”