Inset: Rayna Bell appears in court. Background: Ring camera footage allegedly showing Bell’s ex-husband being monitored inside his California home (KNSD/YouTube).
A California woman has admitted to spying on her former husband through his Ring cameras, with court filings stating she streamed more than 700 hours of video showing the man and his family inside his home.
Rayna Bell pleaded guilty last week to a misdemeanor count of eavesdropping with an electronic device, court records show. Under the plea agreement, she was ordered to pay restitution, serve one day in custody with credit for time already served, and complete one year of probation.
In a request for a “domestic violence restraining order” obtained by local NBC affiliate KNSD, Bell’s ex-husband accused her of “unlawfully accessing” his private Ring camera system last year. The filing also alleged she connected his account to six Amazon Alexa devices registered in her name.
“[Bell] viewed video footage for approximately 44,640 minutes — an average of 12 hours per day — over the span of two months,” the request stated. “These devices include cameras inside and outside my home, including our children’s rooms. Her unauthorized access violated both my privacy and the safety of my household.”
The ex-husband and his family told KNSD they realized something was wrong when they heard a voice coming from one of the cameras.
“It was his ex-wife’s voice,” the man’s fiancee, Acacia Young, recalled. “We tried so hard to try to restore the peace, the security, the privacy. Once you are robbed of that, it’s almost impossible to try to restore that in your home.”
According to the restraining order request, the footage that Bell “live viewed” and recorded included “deeply personal and private moments, such as my fiancee breastfeeding our newborn, nudity and partially undressed footage of our children … in vulnerable settings.”
The recordings were “deeply invasive” and deemed as possible child exploitation by the ex-husband, according to KNSD.
“[Bell] also accessed and recorded confidential household conversations, including private discussions between my fiancée and me regarding our finances, credit card numbers, banking details, Social Security information, medical records, medical health history, and other protected health and identity-related data,” the request charged. “Her conduct constitutes a serious invasion of privacy and potential identity theft.”
Bell did not respond to KNSD’s requests for comment. Her ex-husband plans to take legal action against her in civil court.
“You’re always going to feel like they can do it again,” Young said. “Or if they had the opportunity, they would do it again.”
