NORRISTOWN — The fate of a Norristown dance instructor accused of using a hidden camera in a bathroom of his studio to secretly record seven women in various stages of undress is in the hands of a jury.
A Montgomery County jury of nine women and three men began deliberations Wednesday afternoon at the trial of Francis Gerard “Frankie G” Laurenzi, 38, of the 1700 block of Kendrick Lane, who faces seven counts of invasion of privacy and one count of possessing an instrument of crime in connection with the alleged secret recordings he made between January and August 2022.
The jury was handed the case at 3 p.m. after hearing the closing arguments of the lawyers and receiving legal instructions from Judge Thomas M. DelRicci, who presided over the two-day trial. The jury deliberated about three hours before calling it a day, without reaching a verdict, and will resume deliberations Thursday morning.
During the trial, Assistant District Attorney Karla Pisarcik argued Laurenzi betrayed seven unsuspecting female clients when he placed a hidden camera in a bathroom changing room to secretly record them in various stages of undress. Laurenzi operated FG Dance Studio in the basement of his home.
“The defendant used his skill set and his charm to betray them and their sense of security,” Pisarcik argued during her closing statement to the jury on Wednesday, adding Laurenzi characterized himself as “a nice, normal man with a nice, legitimate dance business.” “He gained their trust. He used his position to perpetrate his crimes.”
The victims included a bride-to-be, a veteran Salsa dancer and others who simply wanted to learn to dance and turned to the FG Dance Studio and the “6-foot tall, handsome, charming dance instructor,” for lessons, Pisarcik alleged.
But Laurenzi, testifying in his own defense on Wednesday, denied knowing that the women were recorded and denied viewing the images and videos.
Laurenzi claimed that while he possessed a USB charging block that included a camera he never “knowingly” plugged it into an outlet in the bathroom.
Laurenzi claimed he had considered using the camera device to keep an eye on unscrupulous contractors who were remodeling the dance studio, some of whom he had caught using heroin in the bathroom. However, Laurenzi claimed he decided against using the device and placed it in a closet in his office.
Laurenzi claimed he didn’t know how the device ended up in the bathroom. Laurenzi suggested he had 30 to 40 charging devices in his studio and that the camera device could have inadvertently been placed by someone in the bathroom. Laurenzi also claimed that the camera device had gone missing at one point and he hadn’t been able to find it.
“I never knowingly plugged it in. I never viewed any images,” Laurenzi told the jury.
Defense lawyer Francis Genovese argued prosecutors did not prove the allegations “beyond a reasonable doubt.”
“This is a man running a legitimate business. Why would he want to ruin something he worked so hard to build?” Genovese argued during his closing statement to the jury, adding the allegations didn’t make sense. “They can’t prove he ever viewed the images. Quite frankly, the police rushed to judgment about what happened.”
Genovese argued it was “not unfathomable” to believe that the camera device had mistakenly or “unknowingly and inadvertently” been placed in the bathroom.
Under rules of criminal procedure, the jury was not privy to the fact that in June 2015, Laurenzi, then 29 and a Conshohocken dance instructor, was sentenced to 9 to 23 months in jail and five years’ probation after he pleaded guilty to statutory sexual assault and a child pornography-related charge in connection with his inappropriate sexual relationship that began in 2012 with a 15-year-old Limerick girl who was his dance student at the time.
As a result of the previous conviction, Laurenzi also is required to report his address to state police for the rest of his life in order to comply with the state’s Sexual Offender Registration and Notification Act.
A Narberth woman testified on Tuesday that she went to the FG Dance Studio on Aug. 16, 2022, for her first dance lesson. The woman, who had found the business while searching the internet for local dance lessons, testified that when the lesson concluded Laurenzi showed her articles of his clothing line that advertised the studio.
The woman said Laurenzi insisted that she try on the clothing and as the woman began to disrobe in the studio’s bathroom she noticed an electrical outlet that housed a small black device that looked like a cellphone charger and that appeared to have a camera, according to her testimony.
Now suspicious, the woman said the device reminded her of a Tik Tok video she had seen two weeks earlier that warned women about secret recording devices that were identical to battery chargers. The woman testified she inspected the device more closely and found it contained an SD memory card and she removed it from the device before plugging the device back into the electrical outlet.
The woman told jurors she was “terrified and panicking” and quickly left the studio with the SD memory card.
Within minutes of driving away, Laurenzi phoned the woman twice, asking her if she took anything from the studio, at one point specifically mentioning an SD card, according to her testimony.
When the woman inspected the contents of the memory card she observed the recording of her getting undressed in the bathroom. The woman testified she had been recorded without her consent and she immediately notified Norristown police and subsequently gave authorities the memory card.
Norristown Detective Angela Anderson testified authorities obtained a warrant to search Laurenzi’s residence on Aug. 17. Testimony revealed detectives did not find anything resembling a hidden camera device anywhere in the home, let alone in the basement.
Authorities did seize several electronic devices capable of storage but nothing of evidentiary value was found on the devices, according to testimony.
But Norristown Police Lieutenant James Angelucci testified that when detectives downloaded the contents of the SD memory card turned over by the victim they found 54 video files depicting females in the dance studio’s bathroom while in various stages of undress or nudity.
During the trial, Genovese argued the timestamps on the videos that were retrieved were wrong and that no one could say for sure when the recordings occurred.
On Aug. 25, police held a press conference for the purpose of assisting detectives in identifying victims.
Ultimately, detectives were able to identify nine additional women depicted in the video files and 13 were unidentified, according to court documents. Each female depicted in the video files “confirmed that prior to arriving at Laurenzi’s dance studio they never agreed to be filmed in the nude,” Anderson wrote in a criminal complaint.
At the time of his previous sexual assault conviction in 2015, officials determined Laurenzi did not meet criteria under the law to be classified as a sexually violent predator.
The previous investigation of Laurenzi began on May 1, 2014, when Limerick police and Conshohocken police received information about an adult having a sexual relationship with a teenage girl.
Police received information that the man involved in the relationship was Laurenzi who was the owner of and an instructor at Urban Elegance Dance & Club in Conshohocken and was also a former dance instructor at LeRoux Dance Studio in Royersford.
Through the course of that investigation, police learned the victim first met Laurenzi when she was 10 at LeRoux Studios. When she was 14 she began taking private dance lessons with him, according to court documents.
The girl told detectives that when she was 15 in August 2012 she got a text message from Laurenzi stating he felt an attraction to her and asked if they were going to do something about it. According to the criminal complaint, approximately a week after the text message the two began a sexual relationship.
The sexual relationship between the victim and Laurenzi lasted from August 2012 to March 2014, according to authorities. The victim told detectives Laurenzi knew she was a minor and had concerns about getting caught.
