Former trainer pleads guilty to filming women at Columbia Planet Fitness, gets probation

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

A man who was accused of filming woman while they were undressed at a Columbia Planet Fitness in 2024 has pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor.

Kenneth Steele, of Columbia, pleaded guilty on Monday to invasion of privacy. He was previously charged with invasion of privacy and third-degree domestic assault. He was sentenced on Monday to two years of unsupervised probation along with a one year suspended sentence.

Previous reporting shows Steele was a trainer at the Planet Fitness on Nifong Boulevard. Steele is accused of placing a camera in a towel holder in order to watch women undress, according to court documents in previous reporting.

Steele became angry and yelled when confronted with the evidence, ultimately hitting his accuser in the chest, grabbing their neck and shoving them into a wooden dresser, a separate probable cause statement says.