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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Tuesday, July 14, 2009

Former Arizona Memorial ranger given probation for upskirt photos


By Jim Dooley
Advertiser Staff Writer

A former federal park ranger who admitted using his cell phone to take pictures up a woman’s skirt while on duty at the USS Arizona Memorial was sentenced today to three years of probation.

Alexander Rivera, 33, pleaded guilty to a charge of video voyeurism committed while he was working at the memorial last November.
Rivera “crouched down and put his open cell phone under the skirt of (the victim), a patron of the USS Arizona Memorial, with the camera facing up under her skirt, and took a picture,” the government charged.
Special Assistant U.S. Attorney Shawn Collins called Rivera’s conduct “an embarrassment to the state of Hawaiçi and the United States of America” and asked U.S. Magistrate-Judge Kevin Chang to sentence Rivera to 30 days in jail, three years of probation and a $1,000 fine.
Defense attorney Walter Rodby argued for a sentence of two weekends in jail, noting that Rivera took responsibility for his actions, has no criminal record and hopes to enlist in the Army “to serve his country.”
Rivera’s wife tearfully asked Chang to “be merciful,” calling her husband’s conduct “totally, completely out of character.”
She called her husband “a good man who did a very wrong, very stupid thing.”
Prosecutor Collins said Alexander initially denied doing anything wrong, telling other rangers that he had crouched down because “his socks fell down a lot.”
But Rivera later admitted taking the picture and said he had engaged in similar conduct “on two separate flights coming from the Mainland,” Collins said.
Rivera’s conduct at the Memorial was particularly reprehensible because it occurred “on hallowed ground,” Collins told Chang.