Former GOP city chair busted for videotaping naked boys
A former New Jersey Republican city chair has been arrested on multiple charges of using a hidden camera to videotape naked boys using communal showers at a Catholic high school.
Patrick Lott, the 54-year-old assistant principal at Bernardsville Middle School since 2009, is facing more than 50 counts including endangering the welfare of a child and invasion of privacy at Immaculata High School in Somerville, where he volunteered as a coach.
Investigators raided Lott's home about two weeks ago and seized computer files that included videos of naked male students in the shower. Nine or more of the students were under the age of 16, according to WABC.
Court documents indicated that there were 15 victims in all.
Before becoming assistant principal at Bernardsville Middle School in 2009, Lott had been assistant principal of Bernards High School since 2003. He also coached wrestling at Montgomery High School for about 9 years.
"I enjoyed the interaction with the kids," Lott explained to the Courier Journal in 2002 as he was planning to leave Montgomery High School. "You become attached to the kids you coach. There’s never a good time to move on."
In 2010, Somerville’s Republican Committee listed Lott as their chairman in papers filed with the state's Election Law Enforcement Commission.
He has also run as a Republican for a Somerset County freeholder seat about 20 years ago and then again for a Somerville council seat about two years ago.
Lott is being held in the Somerset County jail on $500,000 bond. Authorities have said that if released on bail, he will not be allowed to have contact with victims or staff from Immaculata High School or any child under the age of 16.
Watch this video from WABC and WPIX, uploaded Dec. 29, 2011.