Video of Walter John High students undressing in changing room was shot in 2018, police say

Detectives seized more than 100 electronic devices from Bethesda school, suspect’s home following video discovery

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April 22, 2026 6:25 p.m.

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A 2018 video allegedly recorded by a Walter John High School employee shows four students in “various stages of undress” in the school theater’s dressing room, although no nudity is visible, Montgomery County police said Wednesday in a statement. 

All four victims in the video have been identified and contacted, police said in the statement that provided more details about the video that led to the April 15 arrest of media services technician James Mulhern III, 43, of Clarksburg.  

The statement was the first acknowledgment by police that the video, discovered April 7 by another student in a video camera found in the school theater’s control room, was not taken recently. 

Mulhern was charged with one count of sex abuse of a minor and released Friday on a $10,000 unsecured bond after a hearing in Montgomery County District Court in Rockville. Mulhern, whose next court date is May 15, was released on several conditions, including that he have no contact with minors, and stay off the internet and away from the Bethesda high school at 6400 Rock Spring Drive.  

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Following Mulhern’s arrest, detectives with the department’s Special Victims Investigations Division (SVID) also seized “more than 100 computers, cell phones, tablets and other electronic media from the school and from Mulhern’s residence” and are analyzing the devices. 

According to charging documents, two students at the school noticed a video camera in the control booth of the theater on April 7. They attempted to watch a video stored on the camera but were unable to. One of the students then copied the camera’s memory card to his laptop, and then saw that the video showed students undressing in a girls changing room near the theater.  

According to the documents, a man, later identified as Mulhern, is seen placing the camera down and leaving the room while it is recording. Shortly after, female students enter the room and begin changing into costumes, the documents said.  

At the end of the video, according to the charging documents, the same man comes back and approaches the camera to turn it off. The student who watched the video emailed the contents of the memory card to Walter Johnson Principal Nicole Morgan on April 15.   

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Police said the investigation of the video and seized devices “will take time.” If other victims are found, they will be notified by the Special Victims Investigations Division, the statement said.  

“This is an active and ongoing investigation and SVID detectives are reviewing evidence to determine whether additional crimes occurred,” police said.  

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Originally published at Bethesdamagazine