Former Music School Owner Sentenced To 50 Years In Prison For Secretly Filming Students

A 43-year-old music teacher from Monroe County, New York will likely spend the rest of his life in prison after he pleaded guilty to secretly filming students from his school, state prosecutors announced Tuesday.

Philip Close, of Rochester, was sentenced to 50 years in prison by United States District Judge Charles Siragusa after the former pleaded guilty to a 74-count indictment, U.S. Attorney James P. Kennedy, Jr. said in a statement.

"As a result of this sentence, this defendant will likely spend most or all of the rest of his life behind bars," Kennedy was quoted as saying.

The indictment included 61 counts of production of child pornography and 13 counts of possession of material containing child pornography involving prepubescent minors, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of New York (USAO-WDNY.)

Close had owned the Close School of Music located along the Town of Parma's West Bridge Road from 2016 to 2019 and provided music lessons to children of all ages, according to U.S. Attorney Meghan K. McGuire, the prosecutor who handled the case.

During that period, Close had installed spy cameras throughout the school and secretly recorded students, parents and other teachers, the USAO-WDNY said in the statement posted on the Department of Justice's website.

Some of the spy cameras had captured videos of Close inappropriately touching his students and himself during lessons, according to the statement.

Close had also placed two spy cameras in the school's only bathroom, with one being positioned under the toilet and the other one hidden in a watercooler facing the toilet. He had intentionally positioned the cameras to record the naked genitals of young girls when they stood up from the toilet.

The music teacher had also placed a spy camera in the bathroom of a school he worked at between 2012 and 2016, which recorded the naked genitals of girls when they went to the facility, according to prosecutors.

Close produced hundreds of child pornography materials involving 61 identified minor victims between 2012 and 2019, with the youngest victim being four years old, the USAO-WDNY said.

Authorities also discovered 13 devices that contained other images and videos of child pornography when executing a search warrant at the Close School of Music.

The USAO-WDNY thanked the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Child Exploitation Task Force, the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office and the Monroe County District Attorney’s Office in its statement.