Teen describes harrowing tale of secret videos

On the February day that State Police took Glen Siembor away from his Victor-based running store in handcuffs, 16-year-old Brigid Lawler watched from a nearby Dunkin' Donuts shop with her mother.

Brigid wanted to see the arrest of Siembor — a friend of her father, a popular businessman, and a man who had employed her and many teenage girls at his store. It had been difficult for Brigid to come forward, to admit to family and police that she suspected that he was filming her — and possibly others — in locations throughout the running store, including the dressing room. But his behavior was so unusual and so odd that she had stopped working there as she struggled with what, if anything, she should tell her parents.

As Siembor was placed in a police car, Brigid turned to her mother, Molly, and said, "Finally, it's over."

"What do you mean?" Molly asked.

"Finally," Brigid said. "He's never going to do this to anyone again."

That may have been accurate, but she would soon learn the story had several chapters yet to go. It may, indeed, finally be over Monday when Siembor faces his prison sentence.

At the time of Siembor's arrest, Brigid had no certainty there were victims other than herself. And, even she sometimes questioned whether she had misread Siembor's intentions when he blatantly snapped photos of her as she worked in the store, and, even odder, when he had her chat online with men through social media.

But there was the sexually explicit video he had once shown her. And the camera she discovered tucked inside a shoebox, with a lens pointing out a hole on the side.

Brigid's suspicions and gut instincts about him started the process that led to Siembor's arrest. But neither she nor her family could foresee what the months ahead would bring for Brigid, who stopped going to many of her classes while she relied on tutors, high school teachers and guidance counselors to get her through her junior year at Victor High School.

"Brigid went through hell," Molly said at the family's Victor home Sunday.

Siembor's arrest was the start of a cascading series of events, as State Police uncovered videos of nearly three dozen women, most of them teens, that he had filmed in his store and elsewhere. Brigid helped police identify many of them.

The Lawlers even learned that Siembor had secreted a camera in Brigid's own bedroom, filming her there.

On Monday, Siembor, 47, is scheduled to be sentenced in Ontario County Court for his illegal filming of girls and women. In June, he pleaded guilty to 33 counts of second-degree unlawful surveillance. In all, 35 victims were identified, but two of the victims were filmed past the five-year statute of limitations for the crime. Police found videos dating back to 2006.

Siembor also admitted to a single count of child pornography. State Police investigators say they found nearly 1,000 images of child pornography on his computers.

His plea agreement calls for a sentence of five to 15 years, though his attorney, David Murante, said he plans to ask Ontario County Court Judge Craig Doran for a lesser sentence. Murante declined further comment Sunday.

And, on Monday, Brigid and her family plan to speak at the sentencing, to tell of the anguished months since that February day.

"It will definitely be closure," Brigid said, "not just for me but for all the victims."

A family's struggles

The Lawler family knows difficulty.

For more than six years now, Brigid's father, retired Rochester Police Department Investigator Bill Lawler, has confronted the effects of Huntington's disease, a neurological malady that severely affects one's balance and speech.

Lawler's disease, in fact, is what brought Siembor so close to the family.

Lawler, an avid runner, had known Siembor for years. He sometimes frequented Siembor's Tri Running & Walking Store and Siembor had coached various youth sports in the community.

When Lawler was diagnosed, he decided he wanted to start a fundraising run for Huntington's research. Siembor helped organize and time the popular annual spring run in downtown Rochester.

In January, Brigid started working part time at the store on some evenings.

"Every time I went there, his behavior started getting more bizarre," she said.

She found the camera in the shoebox and noted others elsewhere. Sometimes, she said, Siembor would brazenly take photos of her from behind with his cellphone. She was sure she even saw him do the same thing once to her older sister, Maggie.

But she continued to doubt herself, partly because Siembor had been such a trusted family friend. "I honestly blew it off," she said.

Then, his actions turned weirder still. He would ask her to chat with men online through a social media connection. He said he was simply pulling pranks on the men. He showed her a video of a man masturbating. He was almost bold in his perversions, she said.

"It was almost too obvious," she said, recalling how he would often ask teenage girls to try on exercise clothes in the dressing room. Siembor told many of them that they could become models for the store, Brigid said.

Instead of alerting anyone, she stopped working there in late January. But, distraught and unsure, she told some friends. At the time she didn't want the information to go further. "I knew it would be hard to believe," she said. But her friends insisted that she tell her parents.

She first told her mother, and Molly later told Bill. His first concern was his daughter's welfare; his second was ensuring that Siembor pay.

"Once he knew that Brigid was OK, he went right into cop-mode mentality," Molly said.

He called a friend, State Police Investigator Thomas Crowley. Crowley took depositions from Brigid and Molly, and gathered enough information of the secretive filming for the February arrest. At the time, Brigid was the sole victim in the arrest warrant, which did not reveal her identity.

Immediately after the arrest, Brigid wondered just what she'd started. Her uncertainty grew, as she tried to convince herself that she'd judged Siembor correctly. About 90 minutes after the arrest, Crowley called the Lawlers' home, telling the family that cameras had been found throughout the store — far more than would make sense for simple surveillance purposes.

Police had seized computers and planned to pore through them for images. The Lawlers were now far more sure that they — and particularly Brigid — had done the right thing.

Nonetheless, that would do little to curb the pain of the months to come.

The investigation

Once State Police began to wade through Siembor's computers and find photos of girls and women in different states of undress, investigators needed to identify the victims. Brigid, they realized, may well know many of the victims, and they had her look at the images.

"One of the first pictures I ever identified was one of my best friends," she said. She had brought the girl to the store.

"That made me insanely mad," Brigid said.

Many times, she and her mother would review images and help investigators determine just whom Siembor had filmed. Once, Molly said, Crowley called and asked her whether she knew of a bedroom with turquoise colors and a window. Molly said she doubted she could be much help; she'd never been in the Siembor home, she said.

No, Crowley said, the bedroom was likely Brigid's. She'd been filmed there, changing clothes.

The bedroom was, in fact, Brigid's, but a camera was never found, Molly said. The family assumes that Siembor, who'd been given a key to the home as he helped organize the annual runs, had placed the camera in the room when the family was away, and later removed it.

"He violated our privacy," Molly said. "He preyed on all of us."

Police say Siembor even placed cameras in his own home in Victor, where friends of his teenage children sometimes visited.

After Siembor's arrest, some of Brigid's high school classmates, insisting on Siembor's innocence, would make life particularly difficult. She heard "whispers" in the hallway and saw social media postings that touted Siembor's fine character.

Returning to school became painful. She missed classes.

The high school accommodated her, as teachers made sure she got her assignments. She worked some in the school's guidance office, where counselors also helped her navigate the year. Her parents hired private tutors to ensure she did not lose ground, and she finished the year with a solid grade point average.

Bill Lawler has been known for a sunny disposition, even in the face of his disease. But his family has witnessed the toll these months have taken.

Lawler's balance seems to be worsening at a quicker pace, Molly said. And, despite his insistence on living each day to its fullest, "it has basically taken seven months of his life away from our family," Molly said.

Brigid said that there are, to this day, some who question whether Siembor did what he is accused of — and what he, in his guilty plea, admitted to.

And there are those — friends and family and teachers and counselors — who have given her a needed shoulder to cry on, the necessary room to vent her anger, and the assurance that she acted with courage.

"I found out who my real friends are," she said.

She no longer doubts herself or her decisions.

"I stopped a sexual predator," she said.

GCRAIG@DemocratandChronicle.com

Coming up

Check DemocratandChronicle.com throughout the day Monday for updates on the Glen Siembor sentencing.