Community Corner
Sex Offender to Be Sentenced Wednesday for Recording Models Changing
Robert Liguori was arrested last July after the incident at a Southampton Village swimwear fashion show.
A Mastic Beach sex offender who pleaded guilty in March to eight felony counts of unlawful surveillance is expected to be sentenced Wednesday to one-and-a-half to three years in prison, according to the Suffolk County district attorney's office.
The DA's office said 52-year-old Robert Liguori was hired as a freelance photographer to shoot an event in Southampton Village in July 2012 when he went into a makeshift dressing room for female swimsuit models and hid a video camera.
Police said four women, between the ages of 20 and 31, were recorded disrobing, and other women, who were dressed, were taped as well.
Liguori is already a level-two sex offender, and the DA's office will recommend Wednesday that he be upgraded to a level-three offender.
“This defendant has a record of reoffending and he is a threat to public safety,” District Attorney Spota said. “We were fortunate the sponsor of the event seized the camera and turned the recording over to police and the footage did not end up on the Internet.”
The fashion designer, Lu Berry, said that Liguori could clearing be seen in the video maneuvering the camera.
Southampton Village police arrested Liguori at his home Sept. 18, 2012, and executed a search warrant, seizing videos and photographs. Liguori's attorney, Christopher Gioe, of Central Islip law firm Piana and Gioe, said nothing that was found during the search led to further criminal charges.
For the fashion show incident, police charged Liguori with four counts of unlawful surveillance in the second degree, a felony, and three misdemeanor counts of attempted surveillance in the second degree. However, the charges were upgraded twice. Liguori was initially indicted on five felony counts of unlawful surveillance, but then a grand jury offered up a new eight-count indictment, which superseded the previous one.
Liguori will be sentenced by Judge Barbara Kahn at Suffolk County Criminal Court in Riverside.
Liguori still faces a charge of misdemeanor stalking, in an unrelated incident. Gioe said Liguori maintains his innocence on that charge, and is represented by the Legal Aid Society.
The stalking charge arose when Liguori was arrested Sept. 7 for an incident in Center Moriches, in which Suffolk police said he exposed himself to a woman working at a clothing store. According to the arrest report, he returned to the store two more times that day, "placing the victim in fear of the commission of a sex offense against her ..."
The DA's office said Liguori became a registered sex offender after he was arrested in 1998 and convicted in 2000 of trafficking in child pornography, transmitting child pornography and transporting child pornography interstate.
