Man who recorded child in Monroeville school bathroom gets probation

A man who lied his way into a Monroeville elementary school and positioned his phone to record a 10-year-old girl in the restroom earlier this year pleaded guilty Tuesday to multiple charges.

Brian Mintmier, 26, was admitted into the intensive, Allegheny County Common Pleas Mental Health Court program and will serve five years probation, including time in a residential treatment program.

He has been diagnosed with schizophrenia, said defense attorney Casey White.

“He wasn’t a predator,” White said following the plea hearing. “He was a man who was sick, unmedicated, delusional and under the vicious grips of mental health disease.

“Thankfully, no one was hurt.”

Judge Beth A. Lazzara called the charges very serious.

“We should always feel safe,” she said. “Kids should always feel safe in their school.

“You took that away. You caused these issues, and you caused them by not taking care of yourself.”

In the incident at Ramsey Elementary School, police said that Mintmier arrived at the school March 15 during the afternoon and asked a staff person at the school to allow him to use the restroom.

That staff member, who was placed on leave after the incident, allowed Mintmier to go to the restroom unattended.

Police said he remained in a stall in the bathroom for 40 minutes, and during that time, placed his cellphone under another stall and photographed a teacher.

Then, a 10-year-old girl in the bathroom saw someone holding a cellphone under her stall and reported it to school staff.

Staff members went into the bathroom and called for the man to come out. Several minutes later, he did. The staff detained him until police arrived.

Officers found a box cutter in his pocket and seized his cellphone.

When they reviewed his phone, police also found video of Mintmier from Feb. 17 in which he was following a 14-year-old girl and then exposed himself in public.

That girl, White said, never saw what was happening.

Gateway school superintendent William Short said that the staff member who allowed Mintmier to enter the school remained on leave for several weeks before resigning.

“It still angers me an individual took advantage of a situation and the sanctitude of school,” Short said. “It should have never happened.”

Mintmier pleaded guilty to charges from three different cases, including possession of instruments of crime; possession of weapons on school property; stalking; tampering with evidence; indecent exposure; harassment; and two counts of simple assault for an incident on May 31 involving his mother and step-father.

In that case, police said that they were called to Old Concord Drive after Mintmier, who had been released to house arrest pending trial, charged at the victims with a knife.

Officers said that Mintmier was “delusional, shouting off incoherently and making up stories.”

As part of the sentence, Lazzara required that Mintmier be placed at a residential facility not near any school. He is forbidden from being near any school or using any school facilities.

Mintmier will remain in residential treatment until Lazzara deems him fit for release.

He is also forbidden from interacting with any children.

Deputy District Attorney Jennifer DiGiovanni told Lazzara that Mintmier has no previous criminal history, and that the officers on the cases, as well as the victims, agreed to the plea.

She said that she was glad Mintmier was accepted into Mental Health Court.

“I think he needs that type of stringent supervision in the community,” she said, noting that it had been lacking for the defendant in the past.

As part of the program, Lazzara also ordered Mintmier to have drug and alcohol treatment. Mintmier, who did not speak otherwise, told the court he uses medical marijuana but believes he has addiction issues.

If Mintmier does well in the program, his probation could end early, Lazzara said.

But, she also told him, “if you fail, you’re going to end up back in the Allegheny County Jail.”