Long Island- The magician charged with secretly filming women and young girls inside his Central Islip home also caught himself on tape when he set the hidden camera in place, according to an indictment unsealed in Riverhead yesterday.
The number of victims now totals six, said prosecutors, up from the three police first charged Robert Infantino with spying on when they arrested him. Infantino is a photographer and frequent performer at schools who bills himself as "Long Island's Favorite Magician."
Prosecutors said investigators also found a substantial cache of child pornography on Infantino's computer.
"One of the reasons we're concerned here is we're dealing with someone who's been a magician for the last 24 years," said Assistant District Attorney John Cortes. "There may be other victims out there."
Infantino pleaded not guilty to two counts of promoting a sexual performance by a child, 12 counts of unlawful surveillance and 64 counts of possessing child pornography. "They're salacious charges, which Mr. Infantino absolutely denies," the magician's lawyer, Marc Gann of Mineola, said in court.
Outside court, Gann said the surveillance allegations resulted from one of the magician's photography clients happening upon and misunderstanding security videos.
"He conducted business out of his house and had been burglarized a number of times," Gann said of his client. "The surveillance was for his own protection." Gann declined to comment on the child pornography charges.
Infantino was arrested at his home last month after an unidentified woman and her daughters, 9 and 14, told police they'd been watched on the sly.
The woman told police that after she and her daughters went to Infantino's home July 22 for a free, portrait-style photo shoot, the 14-year-old discovered a hidden camera while changing clothes.
The girl rewound the tape and discovered that Infantino had caught her and other "unsuspecting victims in various stages of undress," Cortes said in court.
The prosecutor added that the tape from the camera - one of several police discovered hidden throughout the home - also captured the moment when the magician set the recorder running and pointed it at the victims' changing area.
Suffolk County Court Judge Barbara Kahn set bail at $150,000 cash or $300,000 bond and set Infantino's next court date for Oct. 6. If convicted, Infantino faces a maximum sentence of to 10 to 20 years in prison, prosecutors said.
