ASU student agrees to leave the US after being caught filming in women’s bathroom
Xiaoyuan Zhang admitted to taking the pictures and videos
An ASU student from China will leave the US after he was caught filming in the women’s restroom.
Xiaoyuan Zhang, who had been attending ASU on a student visa, was charged with six felony counts of voyeurism after admitting to the police that he was secretly filming female students with his cellphone.
Immigration officials are now preparing to repatriate him to China tomorrow.
A female student saw Zhang filming her, according to court documents, when she was using the women’s bathroom in a lecture hall. She told another female student in the bathroom who blocked him from leaving, and then called 911.
The police arrived, looked through his phone, and found a deleted folder with up-skirt photos and videos of female students using the restroom.
Zhang said he had “a dirty mind” when admitting to taking the pictures and videos, according to court records. He said he deleted them because “he felt bad and because some had his face in them,” the records added.
He was held in Durango Jail for 119 days following his arrest, and then transferred to the custody of Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
An ICE spokesperson in Phoenix said an immigration judge ruled that Zhang has no legal basis to remain in the US. “Accordingly, ICE is now making preparation to repatriate Mr. Zhang to his native country,” they said in a statement.
John Starkey, a Tempe lawyer who represented Zhang, said he spent six months in jail, lost his apartment and car, will not be able to finish his bachelor’s degree, and returning to his country “in disgrace.”
Once Zhang returns to China, he will be ineligible to obtain a visa to return to the US because of his felony conviction, Starkey added.