COLUMBUS, Ohio — A judge sentenced a Grandview Heights man Thursday for hiding cameras inside his ex-girlfriend’s daughter’s room and bathroom.
Brian Trissel, 52, was sentenced to four to six years in prison, but the judge said he could be released for good behavior as soon as nine months.
He was convicted of illegal use of a minor in nudity-oriented material, voyeurism and tampering with evidence. Trissel confessed to placing four hidden cameras to record his ex-girlfriend’s daughter who was 11 years old when he was arrested last year.
Trissel, a former nurse, had raised the victim since she was 18 months old and acted as a father figure.
The victim’s mother read a statement in court on behalf of her daughter.
“You caused me to be scared and insecure,” she said to Trissel.
As the judge was weighing the factors of the case, in deciding whether to give Trissel jail time, the victim’s mother stormed out.
“You better give him **** time,” she said to the judge.
She came back a few moments later and apologized, but Judge Serrott said the outburst had him reconsidering his sentencing decision.
“Don’t interrupt me when I’m speaking,” said the judge to the victim’s mother. “When you get elected to do this job, you can do it. I am elected to do this job. You don’t like what I do, go vote. You didn’t even know what I was going to do, you didn’t listen.”
The judge sentenced Trissel to serve jail time anyway.
“I am going to send him but he is getting out early if he has a good prison record. I don’t care what you say when you come back,” the judge said to the victim’s mother.
The judge then directed his sentencing to Trissel.
“You are gonna go to prison, sir. I am giving you a four year sentence. You will probably do nine months to a year in prison, you do well in prison, I will let you out early. These are serious offenses, my thoughts are you don’t place cameras in front of a little child you are a father of,” said Judge Serrott.
After court, the victim’s mother said this is justice for her family and talked about the emotional trauma this case has caused her and her daughter.
“A lot of anger and I don’t mean to show it against anybody else just anger that someone I trusted like that could do something like that to my daughter when we had a family,” she said
Trissel apologized to the family in court.
The judge said he is in support of Trissel getting out of prison early, so he can access rehabilitation programs.