Woman testifies she found hidden camera in bathroom of Norristown dance instructor on trial for invasion of privacy

NORRISTOWN, Pa. (KYW Newsradio) — The trial of a Montgomery County dance instructor, accused of hiding a camera in the bathroom adjacent to his home studio to secretly record women, is underway. On the first day of the trial, jurors heard from the woman who prosecutors say found that camera.

Prosecutor Karla Pisarcik says Francis Laurenzi, 38, used his skill set and charm to gain women’s trust, then betrayed that trust.

Pisarcik says a bride-to-be booked a lesson with Laurenzi, who was teaching lessons under the name Frankie G. After her first lesson in August 2022, Laurenzi asked her to try on dance clothes, telling her she could keep anything she liked.

The woman testified that she felt pressured, so she agreed.

She said, as she was taking her pants off in the bathroom, she came eye-to-eye with what initially looked like a charger plug for a cell phone. However, because she’d recently seen a video on TikTok, warning women about hidden cameras , she noticed a pinhole camera under the USB slot.

She said she took out the SD card, tucked it into her bra, plugged the device back into the outlet, then tried to act as normally as possible to get out of the studio.

While she was driving home, she said, Laurenzi called her twice. In the first call, she said, he asked her if she took something, without naming what was missing. In the second call, she said, he was more direct about the SD card. She said she then “started cussing him out, calling him a weirdo.”

The woman took the SD card to the police. Investigators say they found and identified six other women in videos stored on the card. A camera was never recovered.

Laurenzi is charged with seven counts of invasion of privacy.

Laurenzi’s lawyer, Frank Genovese, reminded jurors prosecutors have the burden of proving every element of every crime and his client is presumed innocent until they reach a verdict. He also questioned how detectives can be sure the videos are from 2022, when all the timestamps read 2020.