B U F F A L O N E W S
A Grand Island man who pleaded guilty to charges that he videotaped a family friend showering in his Alt Boulevard home last fall was sentenced Wednesday to five years of probation.
Donald R. Hoover, 53, a crew chief for the Town of Grand Island's water maintenance operations, pleaded guilty Dec. 14 to second-degree unlawful surveillance.
State Supreme Court Justice Penny M. Wolfgang, who imposed the sentence, also warned him he faces jail if he attempts to contact his victim over the next five years.
Hoover hid a videotaping system in a potted plant to film the family acquaintance, who is in her early 20s.
Sex crimes prosecutor Marni Bogart said Hoover hid a similar camera in a TV set in another room for the same purpose. A family member found a VCR tape of the woman hidden beneath a blanket in the garage of his home and alerted authorities.
A first-time offender, Hoover committed his criminal activities from May through July, Bogart said.
On Feb. 11, Sidney Allen, 37, a previously convicted sex offender, was sentenced to 1-1/2 to three years in prison by Erie County Judge Thomas P. Franczyk for similar conduct in his home on Cambridge Avenue in Buffalo, where he tried to videotape a teenage girl while she was in his bathroom.