In response to a Burlington filmmaker who avoided criminal charges for recording teenagers without their knowledge, Vermont lawmakers are seeking to expand the time limits for prosecuting voyeurism cases.
The House Judiciary Committee on Friday unanimously voted to advance legislation that would extend the statute of limitations for voyeurism and the non-consensual disclosure of sexually explicit images from three years to 40 years.
The bill, H.626, was prompted by a Vermont Public story about a local filmmaker named Bill Simmon who, according to a police investigation, secretly recorded two teenage girls undressing and posted the videos online, where they were viewed millions of times. Simmons was never criminally charged because the incident wasn’t reported until after the statute of limitations had expired.
“Reading about the fact that the statute of limitations had run out, so there was no recourse for the victims once they learned of the existence of the recording … all of it seemed wrong to me,” said Rep. Angela Arsenault, the lead sponsor of the bill.
Burlington police opened their investigation into Simmon in 2018 after a young woman reported a video of her and her sister undressing was on a pornographic website.
The woman told investigators that she recognized the location of the video as a storage room at Vermont Community Access Media, or VCAM, that she and her sister used as a changing room during a 2012 video shoot organized by Simmon, who had been her film professor at the Community College of Vermont. The women were 19 and 17 at the time the video was recorded.
Police eventually found evidence connecting Simmon to the video, but they were unable to bring any charges because the statute of limitations for voyeurism and disclosure of sexually explicit images without consent is three years — and the incident was reported six years after it happened.
One of the women filmed by Simmon, who’d previously spoken to Seven Days, told lawmakers last week that the incident was “life-shattering.”
“It has been incredibly difficult to process how deeply I was violated without even knowing what was happening to me at the time,” said Ciara Kilburn. “When I'm in public, I'm still terrified that I'm being recorded at any moment without my consent.”
A civil jury ordered Simmons to pay Kilburn and her sister millions of dollars for invading their privacy and causing severe emotional distress. But Kilburn told lawmakers that she didn’t get the justice she wanted.
“I wanted him to be held accountable in a criminal court for harming me and my underage sister and abusing my trust,” Kilburn said. “I wanted my community to know he was dangerous."
“While this law cannot help me, it can help others — it can assure that they are protected and able to access justice,” she added later during her testimony.
Defender General Matt Valerio told lawmakers last week that he didn’t see any issues with the bill.
“Conceptually, it doesn’t offend anybody,” Valerio said. “We don't have any major concerns.”
The bill is scheduled to go before the full House for a vote this week.
