COLLIN COUNTY, Texas — A 45-year-old Plano man has been sentenced to life in prison for secretly recording women in dozens of “up-skirt and undressing videos,” the Collin County District Attorney’s Office announced.
Darius Bradford was convicted of three counts of Burglary of a Habitation with Intent to Commit Invasive Visual Recording.
The investigation into Bradford stems from an incident on Aug. 24, 2022, according to the Plano Police Department. On that day, officers were called to an apartment complex after the manager reported a woman caught the maintenance technician, Bradford, leaving his cellphone in her bathroom to record her without her consent, the department said.
When officers arrived, Bradford’s cellphone “began remotely erasing."
Despite the attempt to destroy evidence, officers found videos of Bradford setting up his phone in the victim’s bathroom and leaving it to record the victim on three different occasions, police said.
During the investigation, 47 other invasive videos were found on Bradford’s cellphones, depicting him secretly recording dozens of victims inside various stores and apartment complexes in the community, police said.
One of those victims included the 15-year-old daughter of Bradford’s ex-girlfriend, police said.
According to court records, Bradford had two previous arrests for invasive visual recording. One incident took place in 2008 at a Ross department store in Dallas County, where Bradford spent 30 days in county jail after failing to go to sex offender treatment. The second took place in 2010 when Bradford was caught recording a woman at the Galleria mall, but he was never prosecuted, officials said.
Under state law, a Burglary of a Habitation charge is a second-degree felony, with a range of punishment of two to 20 years in prison. Officials said the burglary is enhanced to a first-degree felony, with a range of five to 99 years or life in prison, when “the burglary is committed with the intent to commit a felony other than theft.”
In June 2023, the Collin County DA said Bradford pleaded guilty to the burglary of habitation charges and asked the jury to determine his punishment – in which the jury assessed his punishment at life in prison on each charge.
“This perpetrator violated the privacy of 23 different women on 47 different occasions by secretly recording up-skirt and undressing videos. He used his job to gain access and his manipulative personality to gain their trust, definitely earning him a life sentence,” said Collin County DA Greg Willis after sentencing.
WFAA spoke with Bradford in April about his involvement in the IGNITE (Inmate Growth Naturally and Intentionally Through Education) program in the Collin County jail. The program offers education, job training and life-skills classes to inmates.
Bradford admitted he wanted to use the skills he learned to serve his community and that he deserved the sentenced he received.