Doctor pleads guilty to voyeurism
A doctor accused of secretly videotaping naked women in his Post Falls home has pleaded guilty to one count of video voyeurism.
William M. Fouche, 59, made his plea Friday as part of a plea agreement to avoid trial on that and four other counts of video voyeurism, as well as one count of possession of sexually exploitative material.
As a result of the plea agreement, Fouche will not have to register as a sex offender, but the felony is punishable by up to five years in prison and/or a $50,000 fine. His sentencing is set for Nov. 10.
Fouche was accused of photographing and videotaping seven women in his home – including his niece – unbeknownst to them between April and July of 2004. The cameras used to photograph women in the bathroom of Fouche’s home were discovered by a 17-year-old North Idaho College student living in Fouche’s home at the time.
The student found two digital cameras and a video camera in a cabinet of a bathroom in Fouche’s home that shares a wall with the bathroom she normally used, according to a Kootenai County sheriff’s report.
The cameras were directed toward a hole in the wall, pointing to the back of a mirror in the bathroom used by guests, according to the report.
The student also told a sheriff’s detective Fouche would go in his bedroom and lock the door behind him when she took a shower. She started taking showers at the gym instead, which upset Fouche, she told the detective.
Fouche started inviting other girls to the residence and offering them the use of the shower, including a patient of Fouche’s, the student told Detective Kevin Johnston.
In e-mails to a family friend, Fouche allegedly admitted to cutting a hole in the wall, photographing the women and storing images on his computer.
In the e-mails, Fouche stated the voyeurism was a recent activity: ” … I have had three previous girl foreign-exchange students with us, no previous abnormal actions or interactions.”
When the activity allegedly continued, even after his e-mailed confessions, family members turned him in to authorities.
Ultimately, Fouche was accused of illicitly photographing as many as seven women in the bathroom. Fouche also was a defendant in a civil suit involving three women who said they were victims of the video voyeurism, but it was settled and dismissed Aug. 31. Fouche also was named in a complaint to the Idaho state Board of Medicine.
After being confronted by a friend who knew of the illicit photographs, Fouche admitted he had taken them and that he needed treatment, according to sheriff’s records. Before being charged, he began seeing a counselor in the Spokane area and later sought help at a treatment facility in Mississippi, according to the records.
Fouche used to work at Post Falls Family Medicine, where he was employed for 17 years. He was arrested in Hattiesburg, Miss., last September.