New details are coming to light in the investigation into a former NASA engineer accused of sexual assault.
Eric Sim has been charged with sexually assaulting several women and a part of the investigation included seizing several of his electronic devices. A recently filed search warrant shows a sweep of a hard drive belonging to Sim contained a file marked “sex tapes.”
According to Houston Police, that file contained several videos of Sim having sex with different women and investigators write it did not appear the women knew they were being recorded. An affidavit filed with a search warrant that some of the videos appeared to be recorded with a camera “hidden in a pair of black framed eyeglasses.”
Investigators wrote when they contacted some of the women seen in the videos, they were told the sex was consensual, but they did not know they were being recorded.
Sim has not been charged with a new crime, but police obtained the warrant under the auspices of Invasive Visual Recording, which is state jail felony.
Despite announcing the charges against Sim during an April news conference, the District Attorney’s Office declined to comment on the findings listed in the recent search warrant. It is not known whether any of the women seen in the videos are the ones also accusing Sim of sexual assault.
“I’m pleased to see the affidavit because what it says is what we have said all along that all sexual activity between Mr. Sim and any of these ladies that he went out with was consensual,” defense attorney Neal Davis tells KPRC 2 Investigates. “The evidence is actually showing he did not commit these offenses, that it was consensual sexual activity.”
Davis also pushed back against claims the recordings were done without consent.
“If a complainant is called in and they’re told, ‘there is a video of you having sexual relations with someone, did you agree to have this videotaped,’ it does not surprise me that a complainant would say, ‘no,’ even though they had agreed to it, because they’re embarrassed,” Davis said.
“If you feel the complainants were saying they didn’t give consent to the recording because they were embarrassed, then why the need for hidden cameras? “asked KPRC 2 Investigator Robert Arnold.
“I don’t have any evidence that there were any hidden cameras,” Davis replied.
“According to the affidavit he had the hidden camera in his glasses,” Arnold followed.
“The credibility of the state in this case is zero, in my view,” Davis said.
According to the affidavit, the sweep of Sim’s hard drive also turned up a spreadsheet with a list of 437 women, including their first and last name, ethnicity, the year Sim met them and the location of the sexual encounter with each woman.
“Not illegal, but did he give any explanation as to why he keeps a spreadsheet of all the women he sleeps with and where they had sex?” Arnold asked.
“I haven’t seen the spreadsheet, but you’re talking about someone who was a very detail-oriented guy, who was a NASA engineer,” Davis said. “That doesn’t surprise me about the kind of person he is, he’s very detail oriented. He always has been in every part of his life.”
Davis said Sim resigned his position at NASA and is under house arrest pending trial.
