A former state parks superintendent accused of recording naked lifeguards at a Bolsa Chica State Beach locker room was scheduled to be arraigned Thursday.
Kevin Pearsall, 59, of Long Beach, was charged with five felony counts of eavesdropping, 23 misdemeanor counts of secretly filming another and three misdemeanor counts of unlawful dissemination of private recordings, according to the Orange County District Attorney’s Office.
The alleged offenses occurred in the men’s locker room at Bolsa Chica State Beach Lifeguard Headquarters and victimized 23 lifeguards and other workers, none of whom consented to being recorded, prosecutors said.
Newport Beach-based attorney Mark Peacock, who represents seven lifeguards, said his clients are on edge about the case. Some of his clients were underage when they were filmed, he said.
“I think there are legitimate fears” about how the case will affect the victims, Peacock said.
“They’re very worried” about what happened with the videos and whether any of them will publicly surface, Peacock said.
“I’ve talked to the clients’ parents and I have emotional people on hands and they’re terrified,” Peacock said. “A couple of them have said to me that they’ve tried to everything right and this happens.”
According to the District Attorney’s Office, the case stems from the discovery in July 2025 of a USB memory stick data storage device with a hidden camera in the men’s employee locker room at the lifeguard headquarters.
State parks officials reviewed the content on the device and contacted the California Highway Patrol, which conducted an investigation that revealed Pearsall allegedly “was responsible for placing hidden cameras in the locker room, which recorded both audio and video, and using the hidden cameras to record numerous videos over an 11-month period beginning in August 2024,” according to prosecutors.
“From 2023 through July of 2025, Pearsall served as a California State Parks superintendent, a sworn law enforcement position overseeing the management and operations of state parks in the Orange Coast District, including Orange County,” the District Attorney’s Office stated.
Pearsall is further accused of sending images of nude or partially nude men in the locker room to two men, and making sexually charged comments about the victims’ anatomy.
One of the alleged victims filed a lawsuit in June in Orange County Superior Court alleging hostile work environment harassment, sexual harassment and failure to prevent and remedy.
The plaintiff was “devastated” by the allegations, his attorney, Ron Zambrano, told City News Service.
“My client is shocked, devastated — wrapped up in betrayal,” Zambrano said. “He looked up to Pearsall as a mentor.”
The man began work as a seasonal lifeguard in 2018 and became a full-time employee in April 2022, Zambrano said.
The man at first had one of the lockers near the front door as part of the dues lifeguards pay to earn a more desirable locker further back, Zambrano said.
But Pearsall, under the guise of praising the man’s work, gave him a better locker, Zambrano said.
“But it also happened to be a better angle for the camera,” the attorney alleged.
Underage junior lifeguards also used the locker room, but it’s unclear if they were also filmed, Zambrano said.
“I learned directly from one of the investigators this could have been happening as early as 2019,” Zambrano said.
Pearsall appears to have retired in July 2025 when the first search warrant was executed, he added.
Pearsall faces a maximum sentence of 18 years and eight months behind bars if convicted on all counts, prosecutors said.