Greenwich Woman Pleads Guilty To Voyeurism Charges: Court Records

GREENWICH, CT — A Greenwich woman pleaded guilty last month to several voyeurism charges and risking injury to a child.

On Oct. 25, 2021, Hadley Palmer, 53, a resident of the exclusive Belle Haven Section of Greenwich, turned herself in to the Greenwich Police Department on a warrant that charged her with: risk of injury to a child; three counts of voyeurism; employing a minor in obscene performance; conspiracy to commit/employ a minor in obscene performance; and second-degree possession of child pornography, according to an arrest report from the GPD.

The arrest report lists the date of the incident as March 11, 2017. There were three victims involved, all minors, Capt. Mark Zuccerella of the GPD said Monday.

The arrest report states Palmer's bond was set at $750,000, which she was unable to post at the time, but she was later released.

Court documents were sealed last week, and details of the case are sparse. However, Judge John F. Blawie of the Connecticut Superior Court included a summary of the sealed documents in his ruling on sealing the court record.

"Between 2017 and 2018, the defendant knowingly photographed, filmed and recorded certain individuals without their knowledge or consent, and under circumstances where those individuals were not in plain view, and had a reasonable expectation of privacy, and at least one photograph taken by the defendant depicted a person who was a minor," Blawie wrote.

The New York Times reported that Palmer owns a $10 million 19th-century Victorian home which overlooks the Long Island Sound in the Belle Haven neighborhood of Greenwich. The Times also noted that Palmer has four children, and is the daughter of Jerrold Fine, who started one of the first hedge funds in the 1970s in Westport, Conn.

When Palmer was arraigned in October, according to court records, she applied for pretrial accelerated rehabilitation (AR), which is a program that gives first-time offenders who are charged with certain crimes a chance to get charges dismissed.

In doing so, documents related to the case were temporarily sealed in accordance with state statute. Palmer later withdrew the AR application, court records said, and she entered into a plea deal in January.

Also that month, Palmer's lawyer, Michael Meehan, moved to have the court record sealed to protect the privacy of the victims, according to court documents. Counsel for the victims supported the request.

In the motion, Meehan said details of the charges involve confidential identifying information about the victims, and that privacy interests outweigh the public's interest in viewing the court file.

On Feb. 1, Blawie ruled that the court record should be sealed.

Before the ruling during a public comment portion, David Collins, a reporter for the Associated Press, objected to the sealing of the file in its entirety, according to court records. Collins said that based upon the nature of the crimes the defendant pleaded guilty to, there is a strong public interest in the case.

"It is important to recall that the privacy rights at stake here are not those of the defendant herself; but rather, are rights properly belonging to the affected minors and other victims in this case," Blawie wrote in his ruling. "If the defendant may be considered as having thrust herself into the public spotlight by virtue of her wrongful behavior and subsequent prosecution, the same may not be said of those parties already adversely impacted by this case."

Palmer's plea deal was made public. According to the deal, Palmer agreed to plead guilty to three counts of voyeurism and one count of risk of injury to a child. The other charges were dropped.

She must also register as a sex offender for 10 years.

In the plea deal, the state recommends a sentence of 90 days to five years in prison, with 20 years of probation.

Blawie's ruling states that Palmer is scheduled to be sentenced Aug. 1, 2022. According to the Connecticut inmate search website, Palmer was admitted to York Correctional Institute, a prison for women in Niantic, on Feb. 4.

Another arrest was made in connection with this case, the New York Times reported.

Dr. Jerome Brodlie, a child psychologist in Greenwich, was arrested on Dec. 28, 2021 and charged with failure to report abuse, Greenwich police said.

As a mandated reporter, an investigation found that in March of 2017, Brodlie "intentionally failed to report alleged abuse and neglect to the Connecticut Department of Children and Families," according to his arrest report from the GPD.