N.J. educator Patrick Lott, charged with videotaping nude students, says he wanted to be a role model

Thursday, 29 December 2011 14:53

BY BOB HOLT

NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM

A Somerset County assistant principal has been arraigned on charges of using a secretly installed camera to videotape students in a shower at Immaculata High School in Somerville since 2008.

According to an Associated Press report on NorthJersey.com, 54-year old Patrick J. Lott is an assistant principal at Bernardsville Middle School who volunteered at Immaculata. Prosecutors said there were at least 22 victims and nine boys in the videos are under the age of 16 currently.

The Asbury Park Press reported that members of the Somerset County Prosecutor’s Office Sex Crimes and Child Abuse Unit recovered video recordings of nude boys showering together after searching Lott’s home on Dec. 13 and 16, according to court reports. Reports also said that detectives later found where the video camera had been installed in the high school secretly for recording.

Lott faces more than 50 charges. He has been charged with 22 counts of invasion of privacy, and more than two dozen charges of endangering the welfare of a child. Bail has been set at $500,000. If he is able to post bail and is freed, he is barred from returning to work because of the court’s ruling that he avoid contact with anyone younger than 16.

Lott was a videographer at Immaculata, according to NJ.com. He reportedly videotaped boys basketball home games and the school’s football games and practices. He has two adult stepchildren and a daughter who attends Immaculata.

Four days before his home was searched, Lott posted on Facebook, "I have always given my best and tried to be a great role model. No one is perfect. Thanks for the memories."

Comments (7)

sad ----- Montgomery township schools nj reputation is gone !

sadsadsad poor Montgomery township schools nj reputation is gone !

This is a man who did wonderful things for his students. He was exceptionally well liked and admired. It is hard to reconcile what demons were festering underneath it all. It is just so sad on many levels. I can't imagine what his family is going through, especially with his daughter attending IHS, and the extensive national media coverage. There is no way to, nor should one, minimize his acts, but I do hope that he is not unfairly placed in the same category of Sandusky and other child molesters if, and assuming, he is solely guilty of video tapping. Hopefully there isn’t anything more and hopefully no child was truly harmed beyond an invasion of their privacy.

Bob, be a real journalist and report some new news. Is he getting the bail amount reduced? Is he going to bond the $500K? What happened that caused Immaculata to report something. Now that would be reporting!

I was in Mr. Lott's TV Production class 10 years back at Montgomery High School. He was always a bit intimate with his students: arms around them, hugging them, rubbing shoulders... didn't seem like it was an issue then bc he always came across as a mentor-figure who wanted to be heavily involved in his student's life, he wanted to be part of the solution: to get the kids of the "right track" in life. But all of it definitely had a creepy factor, looking back now in retrospect. To think that he was the TV Production teacher as well as being so heavily involved in Boy's Athletics; and then be accused videotaping boys in the lockeroom. It almost has a John Wayne Gacy tinge to it. (Guy was a child molestor but held a job as a clown for kids parties) Such a sad case- he was so well liked by everyone. He was a beloved basketball coach who brought us to a couple of championships. I know several people who still stayed in touch with him... still called him "Coach." He served as a mentor to so many during his years at Montgomery. Makes you wonder if it was all a coverup to hide a sick and twisted fetish or if he developed this sickness over the past decade. What a shame to go out like that...

I am an IHS alumni (class of '94) and former Spartan football player. There were rumors about Lott even back then. Even with all the jokes, no one ever thought a "great guy" like that could ever be that sick. We owe it to our children to listen and look into these kinds of rumors, no matter how incomprehensible they may be, because kids are always the first ones to know.

Comments (1)

This explains all of the mandatory showers after each practice and game. It also explains his interest in video production. The creepiness is off the carts.

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N.J. educator Patrick Lott, charged with videotaping nude students, says he wanted to be a role model

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