Teen fined $5,000 for upskirting

A former student at a prestigious private high school was fined $5,000 Friday for secretly taking photographs underneath classmates' skirts.

Austin Halbrooks, 18, was the first person charged under a new law aimed at so-called "upskirting" that made the crime a felony. According to the criminal complaint, he took photos of several girls at the school from February 2015 to March 2016.

Halbrooks was expelled from University School of Milwaukee in River Hills in April after his activity was discovered. He was charged in June with four counts of invasion of privacy and one of disorderly conduct. On Friday, he pleaded guilty to a single count of privacy invasion.

Assistant District Attorney Patrick Anderson recommended a year of probation. Halbrooks' attorney, Anthony Cotton, said he felt his client had already suffered pretty severe consequences for his actions, having been expelled and cut off from all his friends and support networks. He is completing his senior year through an online high school, Cotton said.

"He's been publicly shamed across southeastern Wisconsin," Cotton said, citing extensive TV news coverage of the case. "That's an extraordinary burden to shoulder."

Cotton argued that probation wasn't necessary to make sure Halbrooks follows through with the treatment he's already started, with his parents' support. A fine without probation would allow the case to be expunged from Halbrooks' record right away. The upskirt law, passed last year, requires expunction for offenders under 18. Halbrooks was 17 at the time of the offenses.

Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Joseph Donald said the four or five girls who wrote a joint victim impact statement were concerned their images were shared. Cotton said a detective who reviewed Halbrooks' phone and computer assured him there was no evidence the pictures were distributed in any way.

"The victims feel pain, and for what? The notion that you could get away with it?" Donald asked. "You need to get at the root of what drove you to do this."

He fined Halbrooks $5,000 and said he wanted to consider a sex offender risk assessment done on Halbrooks, and set a review date in April.