Carolyn Fath Ashby
Two divisions of the Wisconsin Department of Justice are assisting Minnesota police in an investigation into hidden cameras discovered in the hotel rooms of East High School students on a field trip to Minneapolis. The students found the cameras in their hotel rooms at the Hyatt Regency, where they recently stayed. Isthmus is withholding details about the trip to protect the privacy of students.
Joe Balles, head of security for the Madison school district, says the state’s Office of Victim Services and the Department of Criminal Investigation (DCI) were brought in by the Minneapolis Police Department at the onset of the investigation.
DCI will take the lead on “other potential crimes” that might have been committed in Wisconsin if any are uncovered by the Minneapolis police, Balles tells Isthmus. According to the agency’s website, DCI has “digital, criminal, and investigative program analysts” who assist other agencies in investigating and prosecuting crimes, including crimes against children and computer crimes. DCI oversees Wisconsin special agents who are part of the national Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force Program, which has multi-jurisdictional authority.
Rebecca Ballweg, a spokesperson for the Department of Justice, confirmed the agency’s involvement with the ongoing investigation but provided no details.
On Dec. 12, Isthmus broke the news that an East High staff member who chaperoned the trip had been put on administrative leave as a “precautionary measure.” That same day, an East High classroom was searched by the Minneapolis police. A warrant to search a Cottage Grove home was also executed by Minnesota authorities on Dec. 12. Balles says DCI helped coordinate the searches.
Details of the search warrant were sealed by the judge who issued it, according to the Dane County Clerk of Courts. Cottage Grove Police Chief Daniel Layber says his department assisted with the residential search. Minneapolis police want to keep the details of the search warrant secret “until they are ready to get a case potentially charged,” Layber said on Dec. 13.
Layber did confirm that “there was no arrest made.”
Balles says Minneapolis police have been updating the district on developments.
“We haven’t been given a timeline. But it appears that [Minneapolis police] are moving pretty expeditiously with this,” says Balles. “Obviously, they did enough work already to develop probable cause for the search warrants.”
Balles says Minneapolis detectives have conducted interviews with students involved in the school trip.
“They were a number of students that still needed to be interviewed. Minneapolis detectives actually came down over the weekend to facilitate getting those done,” says Balles. “I know there is a Hennepin County prosecutor that has been involved in the investigation. I would suspect that [police] are moving their investigation forward to get to the prosecutor’s office to make a decision on whether there are charges.”
Meanwhile, Madison East is struggling to understand what happened to bring the high school under the national spotlight. B-roll of East’s green-topped towers was shown on NBC Nightly News on Dec. 13 under the banner, “Students find ‘recording devices’ hidden in their hotel rooms.”
The district has been mum about the details of the investigation. Isthmus spoke to several East teachers who asked for anonymity. Many in the school know the staff member who was put on administrative leave, whose name has not been made public, and which students were on the trip.
One teacher says staff is demoralized and shocked by the news. It’s also been difficult to keep rumors from spreading among the students, teachers say.
Interim East principal Brendan Kearney made a school-wide announcement on Dec. 13 urging students to avoid asking their classmates who were on the trip about "the situation." Timothy LeMonds, public information officer for the district, acknowledged the challenges of the situation.
“We are waiting to hear what happens with the investigation. So we are sort of in this holding pattern and that’s not easy to do,” LeMonds tells Isthmus. “We have been in constant communication with families and students. We are making sure they have the resources they need and the support that they need.”
Interim Superintendent Jane Belmore told WISC-TV that the district “wished it never happened.”
“We just hate that this happened,” said Belmore. “We are very, very concerned about it.”
The superintendent told the television station’s news department that the district has “strong protocols around our field trip policies and how those things get approved.”
Balles adds that the district has a “critical incident debriefing, review process” that is being followed.
“Clearly, this has risen to the level of a critical incident. Right now, we are in the midst of it — we are trying to respond as we can appropriately,” says Balles. “At some point in time here, [district] leadership will review what protocols and policies might have to be changed in light of this.”
Balles says the students on the school trip have largely been the ones helping investigators piece together how hidden cameras ended up in their hotel rooms.
“The students have really been the heroes in this so far,” says Balles. “It’s up to the adults now to look at this, work with law enforcement, and let the process play itself out.”
[Editor's note: This article has been edited to clarify that Interim East principal Brendan Kearney did not mention "hidden cameras" in his Dec. 13 school-wide announcement. Kearney asked students to not ask students who were on the trip questions about "the situation."]