Son of Bucee's co-founder facing new felony charge
Mitchell Wasek (Austin Police Department)
TRAVIS COUNTY, Texas - The son of a co-founder of a popular Texas gas station chain is facing a new felony charge in Travis County, less than a year after being indicted on multiple counts of felony invasive visual recording.
29-year-old Mitchell Wasek, son of Bucee's co-founder Don Wasek, has been charged with third-degree felony possession or promotion of child pornography.
A warrant for his arrest was issued on Feb. 27 and bond has been set at $50,000, according to court records.
Wasek's new charge
What we know:
According to court paperwork, the new felony charge stems from a Sept. 2023 residential search warrant executed by the Travis County Sheriff's Office at a Spicewood home. The search warrant was executed in connection with Wasek's invasive visual recording charges.
Investigators seized several visual recording and data storage devices from Wasek's room and subsequent search warrants uncovered possible child sexual assault material, or CSAM, on one of the devices seized.
Digital forensics analysts found two files of suspected CSAM, containing images of juvenile females appearing to be between five and 18 years old in various stages of undress and involved in sexual acts.
Those images were then submitted to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) to compare to known identified victims in their database.
NCMEC identified one juvenile female in an image as a seven-year-old girl who had been recorded by a suspect who pled guilty in April 2014 to multiple counts related to possessing, producing and distributing child pornography.
What's next:
Court records say that a first court appearance on the new charge has been set for March 19.
Wasek's previous charges
Son of Buc-ee's co-founder indicted
The son of a Buc-ee's co-founder has been indicted for secretly recording house guests in a bathroom. He's accused of filming more than a dozen people on properties spanning two states.
The backstory:
In May 2024, a grand jury returned six separate indictments charging Wasek with 21 counts of felony invasive visual recording.
Those charges involve 13 separate victims who were alleged to have been secretly recorded by Wasek over the course of two years.
According to court paperwork, a party guest spotted a charging port for a hidden camera in a bathroom wall at the family's home in Spicewood. Witnesses took the camera and found it had filmed guests undressed in the bathroom and bedroom.
The affidavit reads, "the videos showed individuals were recorded using toilets, showering, changing clothes, and/or having sex."
The paperwork also says there were recordings from other properties from 2021 to 2023. The family either owns or lived in these properties in Austin, Dallas, and a vacation home in Colorado.
Investigators also found Wasek's online shopping history included various spy cameras and accessories.
The Source: Information in this report comes from court documents and previous reporting by FOX 7 Austin.