Lingerie video voyeur accepts plea bargain

A Brookfield man who videotaped women changing into lingerie and bathing suits at Victoria`s Secret and Filene`s will spend six months in prison. Kenneth Hydinger, 50, accepted a plea bargain Wednesday, which called for the six-month term and three years of probation. He was facing 39 misdemeanor voyeurism charges, but Wednesday he pleaded no contest to 10 charges and was immediately sentenced. Under a no-contest plea, a defendant concedes the state has enough evidence for a guilty plea, but he does not admit guilt. Hydinger hid a video camera in a shoe box with a hole the size of the camera lens in dressing rooms at Victoria`s Secret and Filene`s at Danbury Fair mall, police said. He was charged in June with one misdemeanor count of voyeurism. The 38 other charges were later added. Authorities said about 39 taping incidents occurred between December and June. He was captured in June at Filene`s, where he was known to security guards because someone had previously complained about him hanging around the store. Hydinger reportedly put the camera in a dressing room and then return to get it. Some days he taped one person; on other days, several women were taped. Police said security guards recognized Hydinger at Filene`s June 12 and attempted to speak with him. That`s when he ran into the women`s fitting room and grabbed a shopping bag that contained the shoe box with the camera. The actual sentence handed down by Superior Court Judge Douglas Mintz was a 10-year jail term, suspended after he serves six months, and three years of probation. Mintz ordered Hydinger to undergo a mental health evaluation while on probation. Danbury State`s Attorney Walter Flanagan said the defendant`s prior clean criminal record was considered while the state and the defense hammered out the plea bargain. The women had a "reasonable expectation of privacy,` in the dressing rooms, where they tried on bras, panties and bathing suits, he said. Flanagan said it was fortunate the women were unaware they were being taped. He added the tapes will be destroyed. The voyeurism statute, which was enacted in 1999, says someone is guilty of voyeurism when, with either malice or for sexual desire, they record the image of another person. The person is guilty if they do so without the person`s knowledge and consent, while that person isn`t in plain view, and in situations where the person has a "reasonable expectation of privacy,` according to the Connecticut General Statutes. The defendant initially wanted to take the case to trial. But his lawyer, James Diamond, said Wednesday Hydinger accepted the plea bargain because he wants the case resolved. "My client decided to put this matter behind him to spare whatever possible victims were out there of further embarrassment and spare his family of the ordeal of a trial,` Diamond said. "Although we had several very good defenses to these charges, today was the day to move forward and get help.`