MINNEAPOLIS — A Wisconsin high school teacher has been charged with planting surveillance devices in three rooms at a Minneapolis hotel.
David Kruchten, 37, was charged in Hennepin County District Court with three counts of interfering with the privacy of a minor while chaperoning a school-sponsored conference in December at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in downtown Minneapolis.
Kruchten, a teacher at Madison East High School, is also charged with seven federal counts of allegedly "attempting to use a minor to engage in sexually explicit conduct for the purpose of producing a visual depiction of the conduct" in his home state of Wisconsin. The Wisconsin charges are connected to separate incidences.
According to a criminal complaint filed in Hennepin County, Kruchten was supervising a conference at the Minneapolis hotel when surveillance devices were found in two air freshener canisters and one smoke detector. Devices were discovered in three student rooms, after one student attempted to activate the air freshener spray and discovered "the inner workings of a surveillance camera" inside.
The complaint says the victims were staying at the hotel from Friday, Dec. 6 to Sunday, Dec. 8., and all of the victims were between the ages of 15 and 17. The victims reported that the rooms were not cleaned on Saturday, Dec. 7 and the recording devices were found late that night. A member of the hotel's cleaning staff said that a man, who matched Kruchten's description, told them not to clean the rooms.
Kruchten told police that the students had reported the devices to him, found in two air fresheners and one smoke detector inside the bathrooms. He added that he had removed thermostats from the walls in the rooms of the victims and turned them over to a security guard, who he believed was responding to a noise complaint. These devices have not yet been located.
According to the complaint, Minneapolis police talked with hotel security and learned that there were no hotel calls on that floor that night and that Kruchten's description of the security guard's attire did not match the uniforms worn by hotel security.
While reviewing security footage, police found video of Kruchten delivering the two air fresheners to the front desk around 1:35 a.m. Sunday, up to two hours after the victims had turned over the devices to him, according to the complaint.
As part of the investigation, officers seized and searched Kruchten's cell phone, where they found in his history that he had visited a website for a company that sold devices similar to what was found in the hotel rooms.
Kruchten is currently in custody in Wisconsin on the separate federal charges, after an indictment was unsealed last week alleging he attempted to produce child pornography in Wisconsin using footage hidden recording devices on Oct. 27, 2019, and on Jan. 20, 2019.
