SANTA ANA – An intern for the city of Santa Ana has been charged with surreptitiously taking 64 video recordings using his cellphone of men while they were using restrooms in City Hall.

Miguel Ruiz Fabian, 24, of Santa Ana, is scheduled to be arraigned Thursday on 23 misdemeanor counts of disorderly conduct by unlawful viewing. He faces a sentence ranging from probation up to 11 years and six months in jail if convicted.

Fabian, an engineering student at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona, was an intern for the City of Santa Ana Public Works Department when he used his cell phone to secretly record men between Dec. 28, 2010, and May 31, 2011 as they used restrooms at Santa Ana City Hall and the Santa Ana City Hall Annex, according to prosecutors.

He is accused of entering bathroom stalls and putting his phone on the floor to record men using the toilets in adjacent stalls, according to a news release Wednesday from the Orange County District Attorney’s Office.

The secret videotaping ended on May 31 when one victim looked down while using the restroom and saw a cell phone on the floor at the foot of his stall, prosecutors said.

He grabbed the phone, identified Fabian as the owner, and called 911, according to prosecutors.

The victims were primarily employees of the City of Santa Ana, but the identities of some of the men in the video clips are still unknown, prosecutors said.

Contact the writer: lwelborn@ocregister.com or 714-834-3784