A former state parks superintendent pleaded not guilty Monday to recording naked lifeguards at a Bolsa Chica State Beach locker room.
Kevin Pearsall, 59, of Long Beach, is 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. He was ordered to return to court Dec. 1 for a pretrial hearing.
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.
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,” according to the District Attorney’s Office.
Pearsall is 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.
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.