NJ store owner put camera in bathroom to record workers, cops say

🎥 Clothing store owner recorded underage workers, prosecutors said

🎥 New charge for manufacturing child porn

🎥 He's been released from jail

ROXBURY — The owner of a clothing store in Ledgewood is facing new charges for putting a camera in the store restroom to record his employees, according to authorities.

Nicholas Zirpoli, 35, of Lincoln Park faces fifteen charges, the Morris County Prosecutor's Office said.

Zirpoli is the franchise owner of Plato's Closet located in the Ledgewood Plaza along Route 46 and Howard Boulevard. The chain buys and sells "gently used" clothing and shoes from known brands for teenagers and young adults, according to its website.

Prosecutors said he put a "device" in the store bathroom beginning in late 2022.

Zirpoli used the camera to record a juvenile female employee and an adult male employee separately using the restroom, according to prosecutors.

Then on Feb. 26, 2023, Zirpoli recorded more male and female employees using the bathroom and destroyed the evidence, prosecutors said.

Authorities first arrested Zirpoli in December. New charges were announced on Thursday.

Zirpoli is now charged with first-degree manufacturing child porn, second-degree filming a child in a prohibited sexual act, third-degree child porn possession, third-degree child endangerment, fourth-degree evidence tampering, and ten counts of third-degree invasion of privacy.

After his arrest, Zirpoli was taken to Morris County jail. He had been held there until last week.

On Feb. 8, a judge released him on pre-trial monitoring conditions.

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