Friday, April 18, 2003
BOARDMAN -- Police have charged a Canfield man with voyeurism after he was accused of looking over a partition at a female customer at a tanning salon. Police said the woman was undressed, but could not say for certain if she was nude.
Philip E. Smida II, 19, has pleaded innocent to the misdemeanor voyeurism charge and waived his right to a speedy trial. No court date has been set in the case.
According to police reports, a 28-year-old Southern Boulevard woman told police she was ready to enter a private tanning bed at the TanFastic tanning salon on Boardman-Poland Road last Wednesday when she noticed a man looking over the top of a partition, which separates one tanning bed from another.
According to court records, Smida told police he had gone to the tanning salon for a tan Wednesday. Smida, according to reports, said he finished his session and was leaving when "me being so stupid, I looked over and saw the top of a ladies head."
The statement said the woman and three employees of the tanning salon asked Smida why he looked over the partition, which Smida denied doing, because he was embarrassed. Smida then left the business, the statement said.
Smida turned himself in to township police Friday.
Officer Glen Riddle said the ceilings in the tanning salon are about 10 feet high and the partition is about 8 feet high.
A manager at the business, who declined to give her name, said the partitions do not reach the ceiling so the rooms can be properly ventilated and cooled. She said Smida has been banned from the business and such activity is not tolerated in the salon.
"We have the ability to find out who was in any room at any time," she said.