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Guillermo Soto, 50, got leniency because he pleaded guilty to attempted invasion of privacy before prosecutors had to obtain a grand jury indictment.
The judge wasn't happy with it, yet he ageed to uphold the deal Soto cut.
“Is this what you enjoy?” Superior Court Judge Edward A. Jerejian asked him. “The time you spent to set up a camera to film women in the bathroom -- is that what you want to do with your time?
“That’s really repulsive.”
Soto stammered and seemed at a loss for words.
“I was trying to make a joke,” he said finally.
Solto then tried accusing police of overstating the incident.
Assistant Bergen County Prosecutor Yomara Castro challenged him.
“Your honor, this defendant was dead to rights," she told Jerejian. "You can see him on the video sitting on the toilet and adjusting the camera.”
Castro said a woman who was viewed “is still affected by feelings of violation.”
Soto was working in the Edgewater office building as a janitor when he positioned the camera, admitting in his plea that he did it “to film the intimate parts of women,” Castro said.
Defense attorney Peter Weiner, meanwhile, called it “a very poor decision on his part” and said his client wanted to apologize to the judge and the victim.
“I’ll go along with the prosecutor’s recommendation,” Jerejian said. “But Mr. Soto, if you violate probation and come back, you’re going to prison. Do you understand that?”
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