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Owings Mills resident Delano Draine, 43, pleaded guilty this week to eight counts of illegal computer access and four counts related to visual surveillance for incidents involving several women and a young girl, authorities announced.
He was initially indicted on 68 charges related to recordings in a dressing room, upskirt videos of women, and illegally accessing private media of patients and coworkers at a Columbia dental office where he worked.
In December 2023, a 16-year-old girl reported that while in a dressing room at a clothing store in The Mall in Columbia, she spotted a man recording her under the door, police say.
During the subsequent investigation, Draine was identified as a possible suspect, which ultimately led to a disturbing discovery.
According to police, an analysis of Draine's digital devices "revealed the scope of his activity."
Detectives recovered numerous upskirt and dressing room videos of at least 11 unidentified women at various locations in Howard County and additional victims throughout the region, they said.
Prosecutors say that detectives discovered that while working as a dental assistant, Draine captured the cell phone passcodes of women – both patients and coworkers – by recording the victims using their phones.
Then, when he had access to their phones, he went through their media galleries and recorded their personal videos and photos on his phone.
Investigators said that they believe they have identified all the victims from the dental office, which include 36 women.
Detectives believe Draine may have been participating in a Telegram chat group with others engaged in similar conduct.
Through the investigation it was found he received several ‘pinhole camera’ videos from other group members and was keeping them for his personal consumption; however, detectives were able to determine that none of the photos Draine distributed during his participation in the group were of the identified victims.
Draine is scheduled to be sentenced in February 2025.
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