A Connecticut woman has been sentenced to one year in prison after secretly filming at least three people, including a minor, at her coastal mansion.
Hadley Palmer will be a registered sex offender for 10 years and she will be on probation twice that time after she agreed to a plea deal and admitted to the charges in January.
During the sentencing hearing in Stamford Superior Court on Tuesday, the 54-year-old didn’t speak except to say “yes” or “no” in response to questioning.
Palmer has already spent 90 days in jail. The sentencing range went from 90 days in jail up to five years in prison.
Her defence attorney Michael Meehan said during the sentencing that “she’s taken responsibility for her actions” and that “this is a very caring, loving and sincere human being,” according to The New York Post.
After hugging an unknown man and crying before entering the court, she was led away in handcuffs after her sentencing.
The unidentified man put on a hood and didn’t answer questions from photographers as he left the courthouse.
Palmer was brought up in a wealthy family and has four children, the New York Post reported.
She admitted to filming people who were naked or in their underwear between 2017 and 2018 with the “intent to arouse or satisfy the sexual desire of such person or any other person”.
On 19 January, she pled guilty to three counts of voyeurism and risk of injury to a minor.
Her case file is still sealed, which experts think is unusual.
The Associated Press noted that her file could have been made public with victims’ identities redacted or changed, as has occurred previously in Connecticut sex crimes.
Palmer requested that the court be closed for parts of the sentencing on Tuesday, but the request was later withdrawn by her attorneys.
Palmer was detained in October of last year and accepted into an accelerated rehabilitation programme, one of the requirements for which is that cases remain sealed.
Two of her charges were so grave that she shouldn’t have been accepted into the scheme, but those charges, employing a minor in an obscene performance and possession of child pornography, were dropped when she accepted the plea deal, per the AP.
Palmer is the daughter of Jerrold Fine, a hedge fund founder. She’s currently in the middle of a divorce from venture capitalist Bradley Palmer.
Judge Blawie ruled earlier that it wasn’t possible to properly redact the case file to protect the victims despite objections from the press.
Stamford-Norwalk State’s Attorney Paul Ferencek said the victims didn’t want Palmer to spend more time behind bars than she already had, according to the news agency, but a female victim requested that a protective order lasting 30 years be put in place to prevent Palmer from contacting her. Judge Blawie approved the request.
“Obviously this is an upsetting factual situation,” Mr Ferencek said, per the AP. “I think this is a fair disposition.”
Judge Blawie added: “Make no mistake, the defendant is paying a price for her actions.”
