Imagine being in your bedroom apartment, a place where you thought you were safe and secure, not knowing that all the while your most intimate moments are being captured on tape by your landlord with a hidden camera. Think this is only happening in the movies? Think again. It happened to Long Island native Stephanie Fuller.

In November 2001, Bay Shore landlord William Schultz was caught secretly videotaping Fuller in her bedroom. Schultz allegedly hid a tiny video camera in the smoke detector directly above her bed and taped her for a month. He also hid a tiny camera in the bathroom.

I recently held a press conference urging passage of legislation that would create the crime of "video voyeurism," defined as the unauthorized videotaping of a person's actions under certain circumstances. Currently, there is no law in New York State that addresses the modern crime of video voyeurism. Authorities in the Schultz case were at a loss to find a charge that corresponds to this grievous invasion of privacy; they could only charge him with trespassing. At his sentencing, he received basically a slap on the wrist - a sentence of probation, community service and a mere $1,468 restitution.

Under current eavesdropping law, it is a crime to tape record a person's conversations without their knowledge, but there are no provisions for surreptitious videotaping without sound. In addition, while state law prohibits any business from engaging in surreptitious video surveillance, no law protects people from being unknowingly taped in a non-business setting such as a residence, school or locker room.

In 2001, legislation was introduced to create the crime of unlawful video surveillance, a Class E Felony punishable by up to four years in prison.

Under this bill, a person would be guilty of unlawful video surveillance if he or she:

* Installs or utilizes a video camera to observe or record private body parts or people in their undergarments without their consent, or

* Disseminates such videotapes.

The bill makes exceptions for videotaping for home security systems and law enforcement surveillance.

The Senate has passed a similar bill, however, our Assembly bill remains in the Codes Committee, prevented from being voted on by the whole Assembly. We need to close this legal loophole.

As Stephanie Fuller said at the press conference, "The blame for this travesty of justice can only be placed squarely at the feet of the Democrats in the Assembly who, for some reason, will not pass this bill. There was nothing else the judge could do. Her hands were tied by outdated, short-sighted laws that could be fixed if only (Speaker of the Assembly) Sheldon Silver would take a stand against video voyeurism."