Upstate DA Blames Westchester For Peeping Tom's Light Sentence

WEST HARRISON, NY — A West Harrison man charged with secretly filming family members in the shower was given a one-year probation prior to sentencing because of a mistake in the way the Westchester County District attorney's office handled the arrest, Otsego County District Attorney John Muehl told the Oneonta Daily Star's Mike Forster Rothbart.

Andrew P. Amodeo was arrested in September 2020 and accused of unlawful surveillance for setting up a spy camera in a family’s vacation house in Fly Creek, just outside of Cooperstown, and recording female family members, including a child undressing. He initially pleaded not guilty to eight felony counts, but in March, he pleaded guilty to a single charge of unlawful surveillance, according to the Otsego County District Attorney’s Office.

The spy cam was disguised to look like a USB charger. The device was motion-activated and plugged into an outlet facing the shower. The crimes only came to light after the husband of one of the victims found the naked images recorded in 2018 on Amodeo's computer at the family-run contracting firm where they both worked.

Muehl told the newspaper they had hoped to insist that Amodeo be sent directly to prison, but their hands were tied because of an error when he was arrested in Westchester County.

An investigator in the Westchester district attorney's office failed to read him his Miranda warnings as required, according to Muehl. Amodeo’s confession was not allowed to be used as evidence, because of the mistake.

"The statement got suppressed on us," Muehl told the Daily Star. "It really made our case much more difficult. So in order to ensure a conviction in this case, we agreed to defer sentencing, and leave it up to the judge after he's been on probation for a year. It's not something that I would normally do, but based on the issue we had with the evidence ... we kind of had to capitulate."

Amodeo's arrest occurred in September 2020, but current Westchester County District Attorney Mimi Rocah didn't take office until January 2021. Amodeo was formally indicted in May 2021, following a multi-jurisdiction investigation.

While Amodeo could still be sentenced to prison for the felony he pleaded guilty to, he will not be sentenced until March 2023 when the judge will be able to take into account his behavior in the five years since the crime occurred.

“I certainly hope that he does well on probation, and hopefully straightens himself out,” Muehl told the newspaper.