A Fresno phone repair technician is accused in a lawsuit of accessing and sharing private videos belonging to a teenage customer after she left her iPhone at a repair shop for a battery replacement.
ABC30 Action News reporter Ana Torrea reported that the 30-page lawsuit was filed in Fresno County Superior Court and names former CellPros technician Desmond Devon Fitzgerald, along with the company, in a case alleging negligence, fraud and a serious violation of the teenager’s privacy.
The girl was 17 at the time, according to the complaint, and her family says the concern now goes far beyond the two private videos they know were allegedly shared.
Teen Notices Messages Sent From Her Phone
Torrea reported that the teenager brought her iPhone 11 to a CellPros location in southeast Fresno to have the battery replaced.
According to the lawsuit, Fitzgerald accessed the device while it was being repaired.
After getting the phone back, the teen discovered that two messages had been sent from it.
Attorney Benjamin Drake, who represents the girl and her family, said she responded to those messages trying to figure out what had happened.
“She responds to those text messages with what is going on,” Drake told Action News. “And the response she got, ‘Don’t text this number. I don’t know who you are.’”
Drake said the girl’s father later confronted Fitzgerald, who allegedly admitted to sending and uploading the images.
The lawsuit now seeks damages from both Fitzgerald and CellPros.
Family Fears More Information May Have Been Exposed
One of the family’s biggest concerns is that the private videos may not be the only information that was accessed.
Torrea reported that the teen and her family are worried other sensitive details stored on the device could also have been exposed, including financial information and her home address.
That uncertainty is what makes a case like this especially disturbing. A modern phone can contain years of someone’s personal life, from private images and messages to financial accounts, passwords, medical details and location history.
Drake said there is no simple way to reverse what allegedly happened once private material has been copied or shared.
“There’s no delete button here,” he said. “It’s not like she can just go and say, okay, delete it and the person or the persons that have it, they could delete it.”
His point is an important one: even if the original files are later removed from one device, there may be no way to know how many copies were made, who received them or whether they could resurface later.
The family also fears that there may be other potential victims.
Attorney Questions How Technician Got Access
Drake told Action News that he does not understand how Fitzgerald was allowed to work around customers’ phones and personal data.
“We just don’t understand how the defendants in this case did not and allowed him to work at the store and have access to people’s phones and pictures and private information,” he said.
The case has drawn additional attention because Fitzgerald is also facing an active criminal case.
According to information included with Torrea’s report, Fitzgerald was among 14 people arrested in the 2023 “Operation Boogeyman” child predator sting, in which law enforcement targeted adults they said were seeking to exploit children for sex.
The allegations in the current civil case are separate and remain claims made in the lawsuit.
That distinction matters, especially in a case where several legal matters overlap. The lawsuit still has to be tested in court, and the allegations against Fitzgerald and CellPros remain subject to the legal process.
Community Members Raise Concerns
Torrea also spoke with people in the community about the allegations.
Lemoore resident Unique Mitchell said customers should be able to trust businesses with their devices, particularly when minors are involved.
“You go to a business, you’re expecting the business to respect, especially for minors and children,” Mitchell said. “You’re supposed to make sure they’re safe, and as a parent I want to make sure all children are safe.”
That expectation is especially strong in phone repair because customers often have little choice but to hand over devices containing deeply personal information.
For many people, a cracked screen or failing battery may feel like a routine repair. The lawsuit is a reminder that the device being handed across the counter may hold far more than just hardware.
Sheriff’s Office Offers Advice To Customers
The Fresno County Sheriff’s Office is encouraging people to take simple precautions when giving someone else access to a phone.
Sgt. Scott Schwamb said users can often check which apps were recently opened.
“You can very easily swipe and see what applications are open,” Schwamb told Action News.
He added that customers should pay attention to whether a technician stayed within the app or function needed for the repair.
“It’s always good if you hand your phone over to somebody to see if they just go into your phone app or were they going into your Snapchat,” Schwamb said.
That may not prevent every privacy violation, but it gives customers at least one way to notice unusual activity after a repair.
The broader lesson is fairly simple: people often treat phones like appliances when they need fixing, but they are really portable archives of someone’s private life.
CellPros Says Employee Was Fired
CellPros told Action News that it has a “strict zero-tolerance policy” for any breach of customer privacy or trust.
The company described Fitzgerald’s alleged conduct as the actions of a former employee acting outside its values and policies.
CellPros said management terminated Fitzgerald’s employment for cause, permanently banned him from its locations and has been cooperating with law enforcement.
The company also said it had no prior knowledge of his pending legal matters outside work when he was hired.
In response to the incident, CellPros said it has changed several security practices.
Those measures include using charging docks with disabled data connections, requiring dual-custody storage for devices, limiting when customer passcodes are collected and increasing workbench camera surveillance.
The company also said it has introduced broader criminal background checks for prospective employees and begun reviewing existing staff.
Those changes suggest CellPros recognizes how serious the trust issue is, even while saying it cannot discuss specific details because of the pending litigation.
For the teenager and her family, however, the problem is not only about what policies exist now.
Their lawsuit centers on what they say already happened, and whether private material taken from a phone entrusted for a simple battery repair can ever truly be contained again.
Raised in a small Arizona town, Kevin grew up surrounded by rugged desert landscapes and a family of hunters. His background in competitive shooting and firearms training has made him an authority on self-defense and gun safety. A certified firearms instructor, Kevin teaches others how to properly handle and maintain their weapons, whether for hunting, home defense, or survival situations. His writing focuses on responsible gun ownership, marksmanship, and the role of firearms in personal preparedness.
