'Upskirt' photos included shots of convicted man's co-workers, prosecutors say

Thanh Ta, 43, was found guilty on 17 of 19 counts, authorities said.

A former Colorado Department of Education worker was found guilty Tuesday of sexual assault and taking photos up the skirts of hundreds of unsuspecting women, including female co-workers.

Thanh Ta, 43, was found guilty on 17 of 19 counts, including sexual assault, stalking, and invasion of privacy for sexual gratification, according to the Denver District Attorney’s Office. The trial lasted six days.

Ta, a former budget analyst at the Education Department, was arrested in October after state personnel alerted Denver police to a trove of apparently pornographic files found on Ta’s external hard drive, the Denver Post reported. Ta had been linked to the files after connecting the hard drive to a Department of Education computer.

Most of the hard drive’s 250,000 photos and videos were taken between 2011 and 2017, the paper reported.

Ta reportedly catalogued the files with the names of 26 current and former female colleagues. They contained videos and photos he had covertly taken up the victims’ skirts. Ta had also taken photos of hundreds of other women in public places at downtown Denver’s 16th Street Mall, the Post reported.

Ta was convicted for offenses against only 12 of at least 135 victims because the statute of limitations had expired in the remaining cases, KCNC-TV reported. Many of the women Ta had victimized appeared in court.

“Watching these women individually stand up to Thanh Ta was one thing,” Assistant District Attorney Ryan Brackley told the station. “But, seeing them sitting in court supporting each other was inspiring.”

Ta was scheduled to be sentenced in June.