A respected NYU art history teacher who was arrested last year and accused of being a peeping professor has been sentenced for his misdeeds. Ross Finocchio, 35, plead guilty to two counts of felony unlawful surveillance as part of a no-jail plea deal yesterday. "I hope you accept my heartfelt apology for disturbing your lives," he said to his victims, who were not in court, according to the Post. "I was not well…[But] I’ve done everything in my power to acknowledge wrongdoing."
Finocchio was caught using his iPhone to spy on young women in the changing rooms at Beacon's Closet last May. Two women, ages 26 and 28, told cops they were trying on clothes in separate booths when Finocchio's shoe slide under the partition from the dressing room next door—with Finocchio's phone in it. When he was confronted by store workers and came out of the booth, store manager Stephanie Williams said Finocchio "was sweating profusely," and she snapped the photo above.
Finocchio said in court that the incidents were triggered by “low points” in his life, and he has suffered "a slew of collateral consequences," including losing his teaching position at NYU, as well as gigs as a lecturer at the Met and Sotheby’s.
