MIAMI-DADE COUNTY, Fla. – Police arrested a 37-year-old man Wednesday after accusing him of recording an 8-year-old girl from under a table at a southwest Miami-Dade library.
According to the Miami-Dade Police Department, the alleged case of video voyeurism happened Tuesday at the Kendall Branch Library, located at 9101 SW 97th Ave.
Police said at around 4:30 p.m., the girl’s mother caught Jonathan Eric Goldenberg putting his cellphone under the table and recording her daughter, who was wearing a dress.
They said she confronted Goldenberg and he ran out. According to an arrest report, surveillance footage matched the mother’s account of the incident.
A library employee told police that Goldenberg, who frequents the library, later called staff and said he took photographs of the victim “and was apologizing for his actions.”
Police said they went to Goldenberg’s home, located on Southwest 109th Avenue in Kendall, and took him into custody Wednesday afternoon.
According to the arrest report, Goldenberg confessed to the crime.
He told police “that when the victim’s mother approached him, he knew what he did was wrong and ran away,” the report states. “(Goldenberg) further stated that he immediately deleted the video and photographs from his cellphone.”
Local 10 News spoke to Stanley Goldenberg, Jonathan Goldenberg’s father, on Thursday.
With a heavy heart, he explained why the incident was so difficult to hear about, saying his son is “mentally challenged and autistic.”
“I am sorry anything has happened; we were trying to deal with it,” Stanley Goldenberg said. “We are trying to handle it, to help him get help.”
A review in the journal Brain Sciences found that “although individuals with (autism spectrum disorder) may have sexual functioning, their sexuality is characterized by higher prevalence rates of gender dysphoria and inappropriate sexual behavior.”
“Sexual health and education should be included in the care path of patients with ASD in order to improve their quality of life and avoid/reduce inappropriate and risky behaviors,” it concludes.
Goldenberg was taken to the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center on charges of video voyeurism of a child and evidence tampering. He was no longer listed in jail records as of Thursday morning.
Police said they are looking for any additional possible victims and urged anyone who thinks they might have been victimized to call MDPD’s Kendall District at 305-279-6929, or Miami-Dade Crime Stoppers at 305-471-8477.