Vandeman
A Bartholomew County judge has postponed a change of plea hearing for a man arrested earlier this year on allegations of secretly filming an 8-year-old girl while she showered at a local gym.
Bartholomew Superior Court 1 Judge James Worton postponed the hearing, originally set for this past week, to Dec. 15 after defendant Tanner Vandeman had requested the delay, according to court records. Prosecutors did not object to the request.
Vandeman, 24, is facing two felonies in Bartholomew County — child exploitation and voyeurism — stemming from an incident earlier this year at Total Fitness, 3075 Middle Road, according to court filings.
Vandeman has a documented history of similar offenses across multiple Indiana counties and had been ordered by a Johnson County judge to reside at a treatment facility in Columbus just before the incident at Total Fitness.
Before being arrested in Columbus, Vandeman had previously faced three voyeurism charges in two other counties, been the subject of four protective orders, had his bond revoked for violating the terms of his release and had pleaded guilty to a voyeurism charge in Marion County.
While his initial arrest took place in Greenwood in June 2023, that case had been delayed multiple times as Johnson County prosecutors and a Johnson County judge agreed to allow him off home detention and GPS monitoring to undergo residential treatment in at least three different facilities, including Chain Breaker Ministries in Columbus, according to court filings.
The address listed for Vandeman in court filings is 1218 California St., the location of the Chain Breaker House.
His latest run-in with law enforcement over allegations of voyeurism took place May 8, when Columbus police were dispatched to Total Fitness after receiving reports of a disturbance, according to court filings.
When officers arrived, the parents of an 8-year-old girl told them that a man, who was later identified as Vandeman, had been found in the women’s locker room and had been allegedly recording the girl while she was showering.
Columbus police searched Vandeman at the scene and allegedly found a cellphone and two GoPro cameras, according to a probable cause affidavit.
During an interview with CPD detectives, Vandeman allegedly said he had purchased a membership at the gym earlier that day and went into the women’s locker room and took a shower.
“Tanner advised, while in the shower stall, he video-recorded two females as they were nude and showering in the stall next to him,” according to the probable cause affidavit. “Tanner advised he utilized a GoPro, which contained a micro-SD memory card. He further stated he uses the memory card to transfer the files to a MacBook laptop for viewing purposes.”
CPD obtained a search warrant for the micro-SD memory card and allegedly found seven video files taken within the women’s locker room at Total Fitness, according to court records.
The first five videos were of an adult female who was showering, while the other two videos were of the 8-year-old girl. Vandeman allegedly recorded his own face in some of the videos.
As of Friday, the case was pending in Bartholomew Superior Court 1.
