Ronald Thompson, 61, pleaded guilty to the misdemeanor charge after his June 18 arrest at Dreamland Pool. He was sentenced to one year in jail following the plea.
Thompson was confronted by a group of adults and held until law enforcement arrived. Some of those parents were in the courtroom on Wednesday including Shaelynn and Dakota Bonner. During the sentencing portion of the hearing, Shaelynn gave a victim impact statement about how this has impacted her family. She was the first to see Thompson swimming under children with a GoPro camera at Dreamland.
We got to keep our eyes wide open. Back in , he was arrested and charged with 26 counts of improper photography after he was accused of filming kids at SeaWorld in San Antonio. Those charges were later dismissed as a result of a constitutional challenge. In that case, Thompson was also cornered by parents at SeaWorld when he was spotted.
As park security approached him, prosecutors say he tried to delete the photos, according to reporting from Beaumont Enterprise. Thompson and his Texas attorney, Donald Flanary, challenged not just his charges but Texas law, arguing that the improper photography law was too broad and unconstitutional, violating the First Amendment. Thompson applied for a writ of habeas corpus and was initially denied by a Bexar County judge.
He appealed to the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals, which said the law was unconstitutional. His win in court became an issue for law enforcement and district attorneys in Texas as they testified in front of the Texas legislature in that since Thompson's case, they had been unable to prosecute the improper photography cases that came up.
