A captain with the Los Alamos Fire Department is on paid leave after being charged with placing a video camera in the bathroom of a White Rock fire station to capture images of a female firefighter.

Aaron Adair, 36, has been with the department for 11 years. A criminal complaint was filed Monday in Los Alamos Magistrate Court charging the husband and father of five with a misdemeanor count of voyeurism and one of tampering with evidence for allegedly destroying the memory card containing what was recorded on the camera.

"He is on paid administrative leave while the county (of Los Alamos) conducts its own administrative investigation," Fire Chief Doug Tucker said.

Adair was issued a criminal summons and is scheduled to be arraigned Nov. 8, according to online court records.

Court documents and an attorney representing the 27-year-old firefighter indicate the camera was pointed in a manner that showed both a toilet and a shower in a co-ed bathroom at Fire Station 3 on N.M. 4.

"(The victim) has been a dedicated firefighter, had been going about her job until this week when she found out her team leader was a pervert who liked to watch women use the restroom," said John Day, the Santa Fe attorney representing the woman who previously fought wildland fires with the U.S. Forest Service.

Whether or not she will seek damages will be determined, Day said, by how the Fire Department and the county handle the investigation.

"We're still waiting at this point to see what comes of their investigation into the matter," Day said.

According to a statement filed by Los Alamos police, a female firefighter on Sunday, after having taken a shower, opened an electronic paper towel dispenser in the bathroom when the device seemed to be jamming. It was then she "found what appeared to be a small black BlueTooth device inside the paper towel dispenser," according to the court document. The dispenser was transparent where the camera was pointed.

A fellow firefighter plugged the device into a computer at the fire station and when a message came on screen indicating the device was in fact a camera, the firefighters decided to unplug the device before watching what was recorded.

The woman took the device until later being approached by Adair. The woman said "Aaron appeared very nervous and was shaking," according to the court document. "He stated to her that he had placed the camera in the dispenser and was very sorry. He then begged her not to pursue the report because his career would be jeopardized."

Adair, the woman said, then asked for the camera. He then took the memory card out of the camera and gave the woman the camera back.

"As her supervisor, he instructed her to give him the camera back so he could get that (memory card)," Day said. "She's a team player, but there are things you just can't allow to happen. In 2010, it's hard to believe any woman would still have to go through something like this."

Los Alamos police reports state the woman was hesitant to come forward because "she only wants to fit in with her male counterparts."

Adair later confessed during a 2 1/2-hour interview, police say, as did his younger brother and fellow firefighter, Jerry Adair, according to the court document. Jerry Adair's confession, however, was nothing more than an attempt to cover for his brother, according to police.

Jerry Adair has not been charged with any crime and is still employed as a firefighter, according to Tucker.

Police say that when Aaron Adair learned that his brother was also trying to confess to the crime, he then admitted that he placed the camera in the bathroom.

"Aaron stated that he had placed the camera in the paper towel dispenser the night before it was found in an effort to catch (the woman) on video as he knew that was the restroom she utilized most often," the court document states. "He denied ever watching the video of (the woman) as he removed the card before the video could be viewed."

Adair told police he "placed the card inside of an orange squash that he had at his house," according to the probable-cause statement. "He then drove to Rendija Canyon at the area of the shooting range and threw the squash out of the window of his vehicle."

Police later found pieces of an orange squash in the area, but the memory card was not located.

Contact Geoff Grammer at 986-3076 or ggrammer@sfnewmexican.com. Read his blog at SantaFeCrime.com.