Police records show that a Toshiba memory card taken from Witkowski included videos from ‘an unknown bathroom where the camera was pointed at a shower with glass doors’. Police believe that video was taken from a hidden camera in the bathroom of Witkowski's former residence. — Unsplash
TRAVERSE CITY: Former Traverse City coffee shop owner Edward Witkowski was sentenced to serve at least four years in prison for "deviant, illegal, inappropriate and highly unusual" criminal behaviour that involved secretly videotaping women using his shop's restroom.
Grand Traverse County 13th Circuit Court Judge Charles Hamlyn handed down concurrent sentences Friday.
Witkowski, who owned the coffeeshop “Morsels”, was caught with three videos of unclothed women on his cellphone. He pleaded no contest May 10 to using a computer to commit a crime, capturing/distributing an image of an unclothed person, and lying to a police detective when he was questioned about the surveillance camera.
Witkowski, 49, used to live on North Oak Street with his wife and stepson, but he is now divorced and has been living with his parents downstate, Defense Attorney Michael Naughton said.
Prior to these charges, Naughton claimed his client had a history of being a compliant and law-abiding citizen, but the judge disputed that, pointing to pending civil litigation.
Police records show that a Toshiba memory card taken from Witkowski included videos from "an unknown bathroom where the camera was pointed at a shower with glass doors." They show that the videos included footage of "an unknown female in a towel". Police believe that video was taken from a hidden camera in the bathroom of Witkowski's former residence.
"So that, at a minimum, implies that you had done it before," Hamlyn told Witkowski.
The judge also objected to Naughton's argument that Witkowski's behaviour may have stemmed from past experiences in the US Marine Corps. He is "somewhat familiar" with that branch of the military, he said.
Hamlyn, too, was a Marine. "I'd be hard-pressed to find where in Honor, Courage and Commitment – the core values of that organisation – this behaviour falls."
He also disagreed with portions of Witkowski's psychological evaluation, which characterised him as being "quite straightforward and direct" with his evaluator about the behaviour in which he had engaged.
"That statement is just objectively not true," the judge said.
Records obtained from Prosecutor Noelle Moeggenberg through a Freedom of Information Act request from the Record-Eagle included photographs of a tiny camera hidden in a wall socket in the women's restroom at Morsels. The photos were taken by former Morsels baristas who discovered the camera in August 2023, photographed it, collected other evidence and then turned their findings over to Traverse City police.
Witkowski was arrested on Nov 10, 2023, and pleaded no contest in May. The reason for his no-contest plea in the criminal case is because a civil lawsuit is now pending against him, Naughton said. Since he did not plead guilty in the criminal proceeding, a conviction cannot be used against him in a civil proceeding.
On Jan 31, one of the baristas who aided in the criminal investigation filed a civil lawsuit against Witkowski, alleging that the termination of her employment violated the Whistleblowers' Protection Act.
The judge said he's "all for rehabilitation" and that rehabilitative sentences are frequently issued by the court so that defendants receive treatment and "deal with whatever the underlying issues are." But for such a sentence to be effective, all parties have to be honest about what the underlying problem is so that it can be addressed.
But Witkowski never identified an underlying problem, the judge said. "How can a rehabilitation sentence be possible if somebody is not going to be honest about the underlying issues, what caused them, or what actually happened in a particular case?"
The facts of the case, the judge said, point to a repeated behaviour that became a pattern.
Witkowski may not have a documented criminal history, but the sentencing guidelines don't take into account "so many important factors for your case," the judge said, pointing to the large number of victims who were videotaped by that camera, the saving of "videos of people who were underage," and the impact of that crime on those victims who later discovered they were videotaped.
Hamlyn commended the employees for their bravery and quick-thinking.
When given the opportunity to speak, Witkowski said, "I'm just sorry for everybody that's been impacted by this – and no matter what you decide – I'll be a better person."
He received a prison sentence of no less than 48 months and no more than 84 months for the felony count of using a computer to commit a crime. For felony counts two, three and four, capturing/distributing an image of an unclothed person, he was ordered to serve not less than 40 months and not more than 60 months in prison. For count five, lying to police about the surveillance camera, a misdemeanor, he was sentenced not less than 18 months and not more than 24 months in prison.
Chief Assistant Prosecuting Attorney Kyle Attwood said the sentence "is what we were hoping for."
Attwood said he has prosecuted a lot of sex-offense cases, but said this case was unique because it involved an entire community.
"We have dealt with hidden camera type cases before," he said, "But, typically, it's a specific person who is targeted, not something that operates 24/7 and picks up multiple individuals. So I think the sentence here was more severe than those cases, due to those factors." – The Record-Eagle, Traverse City, Mich./Tribune News Service
