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The son of an upstate New York federal judge who secretly filmed sexual encounters with at least 75 women in his Manhattan apartment whined that his life was ruined by the criminal case — even as he got off easy Thursday.
Daniel McAvoy, a 52-year-old personal trainer, was sentenced to just 30 days behind bars — a far cry from the up to three years he could have faced — but still had the gall to complain about the “toll” of being prosecuted for his perverted misdeeds.
“This case and its process has taken its toll,” McAvoy griped to Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Judge Ellen Biben during the sentencing hearing.
“It has been a huge financial burden and the mental stress of not knowing how it will end, it’s been difficult to deal with,” he said, adding, “My life came crashing down four years ago.”
McAvoy, the son of US District Judge Thomas McAvoy, who serves in Binghamton, was indicted in 2022 on 29 counts of unlawful surveillance after authorities seized more than a hundred DVDs, as well as multiple camcorders and hard drives, from his Upper East Side pad.
But McAvoy — who claims to suffer from a voyeuristic mental health disorder — was himself camera shy, refusing to face reporters after the hearing and high-tailing it down 11 flights of stairs so he wouldn’t have to answer for his sneaky exploits.
Prosecutor Danielle Turcotte, of the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office, said McAvoy made the sleazy recording of sexual encounters with “dozens and dozens” of unsuspecting women over more than a decade.
“The full investigation revealed that over the course of approximately 15 years, predominantly outside the statute of limitations, the defendant recorded sexual activity with approximately 75 women and catalogued digital records of intimate images and intimate details of the women’s lives,” she said in court.
“He kept these illegal recordings of the intimate details of their lives curated on homemade DVDs, on video cameras and files on his computer and saved on his phone,” Turcotte said.
Daniel McAvoy, 52, pleaded guilty to secretly filming sexual encounters with dozens of women. Robert Miller for NY PostThe victims were women he was dating at the time, and at least one was a personal training client.
“Some of the criminal videos began as personal training sessions,” Turcotte said, calling the depraved conduct “some of the worst, if not worst case of unlawful surveillance in this county.”
McAvoy, who faced a top sentence of 1-to-3 years in prison, pleaded guilty to seven of the counts and agreed to submit to therapy in order to get a lighter sentence.
He was sentenced after completing a yearlong, court-ordered treatment program and will also serve five years of probation.
Prosecutors hard pushed for six months behind bars, rather than the slap-on-the-wrist 30 days.
He will not have to register as a sex offender.
Biben acknowledged that McAvoy accepted responsibility by pleading guilty and stayed out of trouble, committed to his program and made significant progress, according to therapists.
But she said she was “concerned” that McAvoy’s letter to the court “appears to frame his defenses in the context of neglect or carelessness.”
US District Judge Thomas McAvoy was appointed by Ronald Reagan and serves in upstate New York. openjurist“The court was struck by that, and that reference, the neglect, the carelessness, does suggest that he may not fully appreciate the criminal nature and severity of his conduct,” the judge said. “It indicates to the court that he does not fully accept the gravity of his actions.”
McAvoy also faces a lawsuit filed in 2024 by one alleged victim, a New Jersey mother of two who claimed she had no clue she was being filmed during her decade-long, on-again, off-again relationship with him.
She only found out months she broke it off, when the DA’s Office called her in and showed her one of the clips, her suit said.
He’ll need to surrender May 11 to serve his sentence in the criminal case.
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