KCBD Investigates: Students find secret recording device in Seagraves’ locker room

SEAGRAVES, Texas (KCBD) - An 8th-grade student identified a recording device found in the Seagraves visiting team’s locker room, according to Hale Center ISD Superintendent Steven Pyburn.

Pyburn said on November 15, the Hale Center ISD girls’ basketball team was playing at Seagraves ISD. When they entered, they saw something that resembled a phone charger.

“Luckily, the girls set down a speaker in front of the device that blocked the view of the girls changing,” Pyburn said.

One of the last girls to leave the locker room thought the device was a phone charger that belonged to her teammate, so she brought it on the bus.

Pyburn said none of the girls on the team claimed it, so it was left on the bus. He said the next day, an 8th grader who was on a field trip recognized that it was not a phone charger, but a recording device.

That student turned it in to Hale Center ISD’s Dean of Students, Tyson Jones, who then turned it over to the county’s School Resource Officer Colby Neil.

According to the arrest warrant, during the investigation, Seagraves security video was reviewed. The video shows on Nov. 15, 2022, Seagraves ISD Superintendent Joshua Neil Goen enters the locker room from the hall but is not seen leaving. Shortly after the same camera shows the Hale Center girls’ basketball team arrive and enter the same locker room.

A search warrant was executed on the device and found videos that showed the locker room, a changing area with an expectation of privacy. The first video shows an empty locker room. The second video shows the Hale Center girls entering the locker room. The third video is interrupted by the device being unplugged.

A further search of the SD card by search warrant shows multiple other videos including a video showing Goen. Goen was positively identified by an FBI agent.

The arrest warrant states the recording device was placed in a changing room with the intent to record people without their consent.

“It is my understanding that this investigation is ongoing. I would personally thank Tyson Jones and Officer Colby Neil for always protecting our students,” Pyburn said.

On Monday, December 6, Seagraves ISD’s Superintendent Joshua Goen was arrested and charged with invasive visual recording.

He remains in the Gaines County Jail on a $75,000 bond.

This is a multi-agency investigation including the FBI, Homeland Security, Hale County Sheriff’s Office, Gaines’ County Sheriff’s Office, and the Seagraves Police Department.

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