Judge rejects motion to vacate guilty pleas in restroom recording case
Huff guilty of recording people in restroom
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A Blair County judge denied and dismissed a motion to vacate guilty pleas as being time-barred in the separate but related cases of the city man who recorded people using the restroom in a local business.
James Paul Huff, 55, pleaded guilty to single felony counts of intercept communications and criminal use of a communication facility, as well as a misdemeanor count of invasion of privacy on Nov. 19, 2021, in exchange for a county sentence of nine- to 23.5-months' incarceration.
In his Aug. 20 opinion and order, Senior Judge Timothy M. Sullivan wrote that there was "no dispute" that Huff "had not been advised nor made aware that his plea to the offense of invasion of privacy was a SORNA registration offense, which carried a 15-year registration requirement as a Tier I offense."
Sullivan wrote that "there was no on-the-record discussion" of the requirements, nor were the requirements mentioned "in the written guilty plea colloquy."
"There is no question that the failure to address the registration requirements as a result of Huff's plea was an oversight by this court and counsel," Sullivan wrote.
Defense attorney Mark Zearfaus filed the motion to vacate the guilty pleas on Huff's behalf in June, asserting that Huff's "guilty plea was not knowingly, voluntarily and intelligently entered."
Zearfaus argued that the court's oversight was "prejudicial and permanent" and resulted in the violation of Huff's due process.
In the prosecution's opposition to the motion, assistant district attorney Julia Wilt requested Sullivan treat it as a post-conviction relief action petition "and that the pending motion would thus be time-barred."
Sullivan ultimately agreed with Wilt, writing that Huff acknowledged in his pending motion to having been informed of the registration requirements by a corrections officer before being released from prison in 2021.
"In this case, (Huff) did not file a motion for reconsideration of sentence nor any direct appeal to the Superior Court," Sullivan wrote. "(Huff's) pending motion to vacate his plea ... was not filed until April 9, 2026, approximately five years later."
Sullivan wrote that a court only has jurisdiction to hear a PCRA petition if the defendant complies with the act's timing requirements. As Huff had not filed a petition within the required time, nor proven any three of the timeliness exceptions, his motion "is time-barred under the PCRA."
In the opinion, Sullivan questioned why Huff had not raised the issue in 2024, when he entered a guilty plea to a felony count of failure to register before President Judge Wade A. Kagarise and was subsequently sentenced to two-years' probation.
"By his own admission, Huff became aware of this issue in 2021 when advised by a CO as to the registration requirements prior to his release from prison," Sullivan wrote. "Such would, in our view, equate to a 'waiver' of any right to raise such an issue at this late date."
The initial charges were brought against Huff after he was caught recording coworkers in the bathroom of the restaurant where they worked. When police reviewed the content on Huff's phone, they discovered a video recorded inside in the bathroom of a man and two women using the facilities, court documents stated.
The video also revealed Huff attached his phone to a pole and raised it up behind a bathroom vent to record, police reported.
Mirror Staff Writer Rachel Foor-Musselman is at 814-946-7458.