SCOTT GRUBB

IRON MOUNTAIN — An Iron Mountain man will spend at least eight years in prison for hiding video cameras in two Kingsford homes to record his undressed neighbors and then having unrelated child sexual materials found on his computer.

Scott Andrew Grubb, 46, could serve as many as 20 years behind bars under the sentence handed down Tuesday in Dickinson County Circuit Court.

Grubb pleaded guilty April 3 to one count of second-degree home invasion and two counts of capturing or distributing the image of an unclothed person in the initial case, plus a single count of child sexually abusive activity from the second case. In exchange, all other charges against him were dropped.

Grubb on Aug. 13 reportedly admitted to Kingsford Public Safety officers he has had a pornography addiction for most of his life and was a “voyeur” who was “turned on” by watching people, according to the police report.

But at sentencing Tuesday, special prosecutor Andrew Griffin — Marquette County’s chief assistant prosecuting attorney — said Grubb’s crimes were not “simple voyeurism that got out of hand.” Marquette County took over the case after several Dickinson County court officials recused themselves.

Griffin noted Grubb’s escalation from downloading child sexual materials from the internet to creating his own material, using elaborate methods.

“He’s not just a peeping Tom,” Griffin told Dickinson County Circuit Court Judge Mary Barglind, “he’s a sexual predator.”

Grubb told police his family was good friends with a neighboring family and he had permission to be in their residence when they were not home. Near the end of July 2017, Grubb said he placed a camera in the ceiling exhaust fan in the neighbor’s bathroom, then later a second camera in that same home and another camera in the bathroom exhaust fan of another neighbor’s home, the criminal complaint states.

The neighbors didn’t find out about the cameras until August, according to the report.

“It has been a year of hell,” a woman from one of the neighboring families said in court Tuesday, later adding, “This is a story with no happy ending.”

Another neighbor said she felt she failed to protect her children but was proud of them for the progress they have made in overcoming feelings of fear and anxiety at the betrayal by a family friend.

“I’ve done some heinous things,” Grubb said at his sentencing, later adding, “I am powerless over my human condition.”

Grubb apologized to both the families he victimized as well as his own.

Just before delivering his sentence, Barglind said Grubb’s crimes “boggle the mind.”

She noted Grubb had only one misdemeanor on his criminal record before his arrest and appeared to be a good husband, father and a productive member of society.

Now, “what he has done will always define him,” Barglind said.

Grubb originally had been arraigned Aug. 22 on home invasion-second degree, a 15-year felony; three counts of using computers to commit a crime, a seven-year felony; and three counts of capturing or distributing the image of an unclothed person, a five-year felony.

While investigating that case, the computer crimes unit of the Michigan State Police had received a hard drive, iPhones, iPads and a laptop computer as evidence, according to an earlier news release by the Marquette County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office, which was asked to handle the cases after both the Dickinson County Prosecutor’s Office and Dickinson County District Court Judge Julie LaCost removed themselves due to a conflict of interest.

After the images were discovered, the Marquette office charged Grubb in January with five counts each of child sexually abusive activity and using a computer to commit a crime; both are 20-year felonies.