Allegedly followed victim to four different locations
ALBANY – A 61-year-old Schenectady man was in court on Tuesday, April 15, to face 11 felony counts of second-degree unlawful surveillance, all felonies.
Joseph Munafo, turned himself in to Colonie police on Wednesday, Jan. 3, 2024 stemming from an Oct. 16, 2023 incident at the Post Office on Karner Road. A victim, who is an acquaintance, contacted police after seeing Munafo recording them, and police opened an investigation.
He was charged with one count of unlawful surveillance and released on an appearance ticket, but the Albany County District Attorney’s office presented another 10 cases of the same alleged behavior and the same victim in front of a Grand Jury in February.
Each of the 11 counts of the indictment listed the same behavior of Munafo using “an imaging device to surreptitiously view, broadcast, or record under the clothing being worn by a victim whose name is known to the grand jury.” It continued saying that without their knowledge or consent, he recorded “the sexual or other intimate parts of such person,” the indictment read.
In each count, a different video file name was listed.
Munafo recorded the victim at four locations: Columbia Circle East Drive (4), White Pine Drive (1), and Washington Avenue Extension (1), all in the City of Albany, and the New Karner Road Post Office (5), in Colonie, where he worked.
The recordings took place between July 11 and October 16, 2023. In one week in August, Munafo recorded eight videos.
He was arraigned in Albany County Court in front of Judge Roger McDonough, who released him on his own recognizance. He was already out on that from the first charge in Colonie a year ago.
Munafo is scheduled back in court on May 16. If he is convicted on all counts, he is facing 10 to 20 years in prison, but that most likely won’t happen if he takes a plea bargain, or if he is found guilty, the judge sentences him to prison concurrently instead of consecutively.
According to the Times Union’s Patrick Tine, who was in the courtroom for arraignment, Assistant District Attorney Ariel Fallon said Munafo made statements to the Colonie Police Department and had “two separate conversations with the postmaster” while he was being investigated.
They also reported that Munafo’s lawyer said that he had retired from the Postal Service, where five of the counts took place.
