KMAX: News of the West

Assistant fire chief charged with secretly taping naked woman

SANTA CLARA, Calif. (AP) A Santa Clara assistant fire chief who was arrested three weeks ago for allegedly filming a woman as she disrobed at a tanning salon has resigned, ending a career of more than 25 years.

Fremont police arrested Clark Richard Edelstein, the third-ranking official in the Santa Clara Fire Department, after a 40-year-old woman complained someone had videotaped her while she was undressed in a private booth at the Nu Tan Tanning Salon in Fremont.

According to the San Jose Mercury News, the woman heard a man moaning and noticed a handheld camera pointing at her from over the top of an adjoining room as she applied tanning lotion in the buff. She quickly dressed and told the salon manager someone had videotaped her.

When police arrived, the salon manager told officers that Edelstein had reserved the room next to the woman's and was seen leaving it around that time carrying a small bag. Both the manager and the victim later identified Edelstein from photographs, court records examined by the Mercury News said.

After serving a search warrant on Edelstein's home, police seized a digital camera, computer diskettes, a laptop computer and computer CDs. They also found a box with about 90 sex videos, unlabeled homemade videos, a memory stick for a digital camera and a pinhole camera, records showed.

Edelstein, who has been on leave since shortly after his arrest on a misdemeanor invasion-of-privacy charge, did not respond to repeated phone calls from the newspaper and his attorney could not be reached for comment.

After so many years with the fire department, Edelstein is eligible to collect from the Public Employees Retirement System a pension equal to 78 percent of his average salary over the last three years, said City Manager Jennifer Sparacino.

At the time of departure, effective Thursday, he earned $165,108 a year.

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