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A Pine City wedding photographer who secretly recorded a woman while she changed in the bridal suite of an Albert Lea wedding venue in 2020 was sentenced Wednesday to two years of supervised probation and stayed jail time. 

Mitchell Donald Ringness, 31, pleaded guilty in October to one count of interference with privacy in a hotel, tanning bed or other place tied to installing or using a surreptitious device, a gross misdemeanor.

Court documents state an Albert Lea Police Department detective was contacted in April 2024 by a detective with the Cloquet Police Department regarding an invasion of privacy. The detective had a video recording that contained a dressing room for a bride taken from a low angle and shows a woman as she is getting dressed.     

Authorities later discovered the incident occurred in the bridal suite at The Barn of Chapeau Shores in Albert Lea.  

In addition to the probation, District Court Judge Ross Leuning ordered Ringness attend a sex offender program and successfully complete group treatment. Monitoring software is required on all of his internet accessible devices, and he must also follow all recommendations of a mental health evaluation and not possess any pornographic or sexually explicit material.

Ringness was ordered to pay $1,930 in restitution plus fines, for a total of $2,060.