July 7, 2007
Legal Aid Lawyer Now Needs One
A Legal Aid Society lawyer was arrested yesterday for allegedly planting a clock with a hidden surveillance camera inside it in a female co-worker's office. WNBC reports that 32-year-old Peter Barta's distaff co-workers told police detectives that they regularly used their offices to change into work clothes (like a suit for court) or for after-work activities. Barta had videotape in his home of one of his workers with her breasts and buttocks bared.
In October 2006, one of the five women who had been recorded noticed a motion-activated hidden camera inside the alarm clock in her Manhattan office. When she removed the digital memory card from the camera and viewed what had been captured, she contacted her supervisors. Detectives have tape of Barta actually removing the camera from the alarm clock. When the district attorney's office was notified of the creepy criminal behavior, Barta resigned within the week. Nine months later, he is being charged with unlawful and attempted unlawful surveillance and could face four years in prison. Any lawyer convicted of a felony in New York State is automatically disbarred.
The motion-activated surveillance camera hidden in an alarm clock was identified as from The Sharper Image, and is likely the one we have pictured above. "Motion-activated camcorder lets you see 'What Really Happened While You Were Away!™'" sounds a lot creepier in the context of recording one's co-workers changing without their knowledge.
Update: The NY Times reports that Barta attended Stuyvesant High School, where he was a "star debater," and Georgetown Law. And the judge, Laura A. Ward, who set his bail said, "Mr. Barta, you’ve been in front of me when I was in Criminal Court," and offered him to ask for a different judge. The Daily News says that Barta, who released without bail, waived his right to a grand jury, which means evidence won't be replayed and victims won't have to testify: "In a display of chutzpah, his lawyer, Henry Putzel, called it 'a gesture of respect to all his former colleagues' and suggested he was seeking a plea deal."
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Yikes. That's scary. And what's even more scary is that I seem to recall seeing that clock somewhere. Now if I could only recall where...
more reasons to hate lawyers.
According to the reports, the colleague noticed the clock was a camera when she saw the device in another colleague's office - she realized it had been in hers at one point! NUTS!
i wonder if they ever make a hidden cam detector. like a bug detector for spies :p.
that's some cool stuff for the layperson,
can you imagine what stuff law enforcement has? I likee that cammie. Now whoever has that camera has been exposed and needs new equipment.
Maybe a cam hidden in an automatic air freshner, or those emergency hallway lights, or a fake sprinkler head, or in a light switch.
Ugh, what a creep.
Dude went to stuyvesant. No wonder. Self Entitled little creep who spent all his time focused on books and an upward track he forgot to polish his social skills so he became a feeble pervert. SICK! All those stuy kids are dicks. thank god I didn't go cause it was so far away from my house.
Not everyone who went there is a social disaster. Just most of them. Good think I skipped school most of the time.
Stuy Class of '95
I went to stuy during the heyday of the eighties. class of 85. No one wanted to come to my home because of the gangs hanging outside. Everyday I had a different Walkman (people thought they were stolen) and everyone thought I was in a gang. Went to graduation on a motorcycle. remembered fighting the kids from Washington Irving.
I must say, the girls like a guy who's assertive and not a wuss. boy this sounds like it's straight out of Head of the Class, which jumped shark when howard hessman left.
holy crap, i went to law school with this guy, and we couldn't stand him then. he was arrogant. a classmate of ours compared him to "sour milk."
hey #10 i recognized him from law school too. gulc stock is falling fast, eh? i wonder if the nytimes reporter ever considered characterizing him as a "master" -- as opposed to a "star" -- debater
I was on the speech and debate team at Stuy with the guy - actually it was when he came back to continue to work with the HS girls after - dude was always a little creepy. Not about being from Stuy - just about being a creepy dude.
I used to work with him. I think many would agree with me that he was a highly dedicated advocate for poor people, but he has serious antisocial tendencies and is obviously a very sick guy. Hopefuly he is getting psychaitric treatment.