Federal prison ordered for Independence man who secretly photographed women and girls

An Independence man who secretly photographed dozens of unsuspecting women and girls has been sentenced to 15 years in federal prison.

Nicholas A. Braile, 26, pleaded guilty earlier this year in U.S. District Court in Kansas City to two counts of attempted production of child pornography.

He was arrested in May 2014 at a Wal-Mart store in Independence after store security caught him using a cellphone to photograph under the skirt of a customer.

Subsequent searches of his phone and home computers turned up numerous images of female victims using the restroom and changing clothes at the business where Braile worked at the Independence Center.

Investigators also found hundreds of images of clothed prepubescent girls that were taken at the shopping center.

Tony Rizzo, trizzo@kcstar.com

This story was originally published July 29, 2015 at 8:43 AM with the headline "Federal prison ordered for Independence man who secretly photographed women and girls."