Former Somerset Hills Vice-Principal Accepts Guilty Plea and 6-Year Term

Patrick Lott, assistant principal at Bernardsville Middle School prior to his arrest in December 2011, pleaded guilty Wednesday to videotaping boys in the showers at Immaculata High School where he was a volunteer basketball coach.

Lott, appearing in the afternoon before Superior Court Judge Julie Marino, agreed to a six-year prison sentence as part of a plea agreement with the Somerset County Prosecutor’s Office. He also agreed to forfeit his state educator’s certificates and will be subject to the terms of Megan’s Law, requiring the registration of sex offenders.

James Wronko, Lott’s attorney, said his client agreed to the deal because he wanted to spare the victims, the Immaculata school community, and his family the ordeal of going through a trial.

If found guilty maximum sentence of 317 and half years.

Lott’s sentencing is scheduled for Aug. 23. He will be evaluated before the sentencing by state psychiatrists to determine if he will be sent to state prison or the state Adult Diagnostic and Treatment Center in Avenel for sex offenders. 

Lott has been in Somerset County Jail since his arrest in December 2011 in lieu of $500,000 bail. Because he will receive credit for time already served when he is sentenced, it is possible that Lott could be released by the end of the year, according to Wronko and given state guidelines that inmates are eligible for parole after serving a third of their sentence.

Marino told Lott that his time of confinement may be longer if he is sent to Avenel instead of state prison.

“Mr. Lott is an intelligent person,” Wronko said. “He is prepared to do his time and he is thinking about what he will do when he is released.”

As part of the deal with the prosecutor's office, Lott pleaded guilty to multiple counts of third-degree invasion of privacy and second-degree endangering the welfare of a minor between about Jan. 1, 2007 and Dec. 13, 2011.

“He knows exactly what he is doing,” Wronko told the judge.

The Somerset County Prosecutor’s Office had originally offered a plea agreement calling for 10 years in prison.

As part of the plea agreement he accepted, Lott will not be subjected to parole supervision for life.

Lott was indicted in June 2012 on 29 counts of invasion of privacy, 30 counts of endangering the welfare of a child, second degree, 17 counts of endangering the welfare of a child, third degree, and 15 counts of endangering the welfare of a child, fourth degree.

In December, 2011, detectives assigned to the Somerset County Prosecutor’s Office Sex Crimes and Child Abuse Unit had executed a search warrant at Lott’s  home where they seized multiple computer and digital recordings.

Detectives assigned to the Somerset County Prosecutor's Office Computer Crimes Unit said then they had located several videos of nude teenaged boys showering in the Immaculata High School boys’ communal shower area. Immaculata is a private Catholic school in Somerville.

Twenty-nine students or former students were identified in these videos, fifteen of whom were determined to be under the age of sixteen at the time of the making of the videos.

Lott is a 56-year-old resident of Somerville, where he was formerly chairman of the Republican Party and unsuccessfully sought the GOP nomination for county freeholder. He was also unsuccessful in runs for a seat on the Somerville Borough Council. In addition, he also served on the Watchung Regional Board of Education in the late 1980s when he lived in Watchung.

Lott also was a former teacher at Immaculata and Montgomery High School.

Following Lott's arrest, Somerset Hills Schools Superintendent Peter Miller said that there was no indication that Lott ever had taken video of any students in that school district.