Boise chaplain trainee accused of taking photos under girl’s skirt at mall
Boise ID Aug 10 2017 A 30-year-old Boise man was arrested at the Boise Towne Square mall Sunday afternoon, after the mother of a teenage girl reported seeing him taking photos under her daughter’s skirt in a children’s play area
Kevin Forbes is charged with two felonies: video voyeurism and destruction of evidence.
Boise attorney Michael C. Larsen is representing Forbes. He declined to comment Tuesday.
Forbes told mall security he took about 30 photos for sexual purposes, and that he deleted them because he thought he was going to get in trouble, according to information provided to Magistrate Judge Michael Oths at a probable cause hearing Monday morning.
The circumstances of the Sunday incident were described in some detail at the hearing.
A 15-year-old girl kneeled down in front of Forbes’ stroller, which had one of his two children in it. The girl’s mother confronted Forbes when she believed she saw him taking lewd photos of her daughter. Mall security was summoned, and Boise police were called to the scene.
After a police officer read Forbes his Miranda rights, he provided them with the same information he gave mall security, Oths was told at the hearing.
Police initially also arrested Forbes on suspicion of first-degree stalking, but prosecutors did not formally charge him with that.
Forbes also told authorities that he’s a chaplain at St. Luke’s Boise Medical Center. A hospital spokeswoman said Forbes has been a student in the hospital’s one-year clinical pastoral education program since June. He’s now on administrative leave, she said.
Oths found cause for Forbes to be held on the voyeurism charge but not the destruction of evidence charge.
Prosecutors asked Magistrate Judge Daniel Steckel to set bond at $150,000 at Forbes’ arraignment Monday afternoon, said Deputy Prosecutor John Dinger. Steckel instead released Forbes, who has no criminal history in Idaho, without bond.
A preliminary hearing in the case has been set for 8:30 a.m. Aug. 25 before Magistrate Judge James Cawthon. The judge will decide if the charges merit a full district court trial.
Idaho Statesman
