Ex-Hooters general manager pleads no contest to secret taping

<p>The former general manager of a Hooters restaurant pleaded no contest Monday to felony charges related to the secret recording of young women while they changed into skimpy waitress outfits.</p><p>Juan Martin Aponte, 32, pleaded to five felony counts, including two counts of using a minor for a sex act and three counts of eavesdropping, the Los Angeles County district attorney's office said in a statement.</p><p>Aponte has been held on $500,000 bail since his May 14 arrest.</p><p>In exchange for the plea, Aponte will be sentenced to five years in state prison. Superior Court Judge Mark Grant Nelson scheduled a sentencing hearing for Aug. 24.</p><p>Aponte had been charged with 25 felony and 32 misdemeanor counts.</p><p>Authorities alleged that between November and February, Aponte made secret recordings of job applicants in a trailer outside a restaurant building being renovated to become a new Hooters.</p><p>Police began investigating in February when a young woman said she was asked to try on a Hooters uniform during a job interview and suspected there was a digital camera in the dressing room. The uniform for Hooters, based in Atlanta, is a low-cut tank top and tight shorts.</p><p>Search warrants were served at the construction trailer and at Aponte's Monrovia home. About 180 digital recordings were found, authorities said.</p><p>Several civil lawsuits by job applicants have been filed against Aponte and the restaurant chain over the secret recordings.</p><p>Officials with the restaurant chain have said it is against company policy to ask job applicants to change clothes.</p><p>Aponte was fired by Hooters, which cooperated with authorities during the investigation.</p>

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