AUBURN – An owner of an upscale B&B has been charged with invasion of privacy after a guest complained the bathroom in her suite could be viewed by a monitor in the inn’s kitchen, where the owner worked as chef.

Police said Clinton Zimmerman, 47, who owns of The Munroe Inn bed and breakfast at 123 Pleasant St. with his wife, had hidden a miniature camera in a clock radio in the bathroom of the Ivory Room. That’s one of the inn’s four featured suites and its most expensive.

Asked about the charge Tuesday, Zimmerman said: “It’s not what it looks like.”

WGME-TV Channel 13 news reported that Zimmerman told the station that he was seeking to catch an employee he suspected of breaking things.

Zimmerman talked briefly to reporters Tuesday morning in a parking lot across the street from the inn.

“It’s going to affect my family,” he said, referring to his wife, Connie, and twins nearly 3 years old. “It’s going to affect my business,” he said.

A 48-year-old female guest staying at the inn last week complained to police that a camera was trained on the bathroom in her suite. She realized the room was under surveillance after she entered the inn’s kitchen the following morning to get a cup of coffee, according to a sworn affidavit filed in 8th District Court by local police. Above the cooking area she could see a monitor that looked like an older television.

She noticed a live image on the screen that appeared to be the interior of the bathroom in her suite, court papers said. She told police she could see the covers of her bed in the background and thought she recognized her toothbrush in the bathroom.

Police said the charge Zimmerman faces is a class D misdemeanor, punishable by up to 364 days in jail and a fine up to $2,000.

Police detectives seized evidence verifying the woman’s complaint. Zimmerman was charged with violation of privacy, defined as a charge of trespass “on property with the intent to overhear or observe any person in a private place.”

Under Maine law, “a person is guilty of violation of privacy if that person intentionally installs or uses in a private place without the consent of the person or persons entitled to privacy in that place, any device for observing, photographing, recording, amplifying or broadcasting sounds or events in that place.”

Police issued a summons on Friday, the same day the inn was featured, coincidentally, on a Home and Garden cable television show, “If Walls Could Talk.”

Deputy police Chief Jason Moen said Tuesday that no private videotapes or DVDs were found at the inn.

“People can feel reassured that there isn’t any recording of their using the bathroom,” he said. Police believe the camera had been installed sometime within the past month, he said.

Moen said Zimmerman had no prior criminal record. The case has been handed over to the Androscoggin County District Attorney’s Office, Moen said.

Records at Androscoggin County Superior Court show a financial lender had gone to the civil court threatening foreclosure on the inn to collect on a mortgage. A judge had issued an order in November for summary judgment. The city of Auburn was named as a party-in-interest, because it had lent the couple $125,000 in 2002, records showed.

The Zimmermans opened the Munroe Inn in May 2000, converting an 1899 Queen Anne Victorian home into an upscale bed and breakfast with six lodging rooms. In the summer of 2005, they opened their dining room to the public.

The inn has been for sale since April 2006. The couple announced plans to move back to upstate New York with their twin preschoolers to be closer to extended family.

The B&B was the first business to take advantage of Auburn’s Downtown Enterprise Zone, part of a revitalization effort that changed zoning to encourage new businesses. The Zimmermans spent months renovating the Pleasant Street property before opening the B&B, the city’s first. Once the home of Horace Munroe, son of a local shoe baron, the house is on the National Register of Historic Places.

Clint Zimmerman is the chef and general handyman while Connie handles the business arrangements and host duties.

In 2006, the couple was honored with the Androscoggin County Chamber of Commerce President’s Award for their contributions to the community and support of local business.

Business writer Carol Coultas contributed to this report.