Daniel McAvoy, son of longtime federal jurist Senior U.S. District Judge Thomas McAvoy, is headed to Rikers Island for a month after admitting he secretly recorded sexual encounters with multiple women in Manhattan.
On Tuesday, Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Ellen Biben sentenced McAvoy to 30 days in jail and five years of probation. She also barred him from watching pornography, ordered court-mandated therapy and other supervision conditions, and set a May 11, 2026 reporting date to Rikers Island.
According to the New York Daily News, Biben imposed the 30-day term after accepting McAvoy's guilty plea and tacked on biweekly therapy, restrictions on contacting victims, and other probation conditions that can be enforced if he fails to comply.
The criminal case stems from a 2022 indictment that charged McAvoy with 29 counts of unlawful surveillance. He pleaded guilty in November 2024 to seven counts, as reported by Gothamist. Investigators seized three hard drives and more than 150 labeled DVDs from property tied to his father, and prosecutors say the recordings were made between March 2017 and October 2021.
Prosecutors and victims push back
Assistant District Attorney Danielle Turcotte told the court that McAvoy had been secretly recording women "more than 15 years, more than half his adult life," and argued that the scope of his conduct warranted real jail time instead of a treatment-focused diversion, the New York Daily News reports.
Defense lawyer Isabelle Kirshner countered that there had been a "measurable and tangible change" in McAvoy. Victims' attorneys have publicly criticized the sentence as too soft, and court records show at least two civil lawsuits are still pending against him.
Why the court used alternatives
McAvoy's legal team pushed to have the case handled in Manhattan's Felony Alternative to Incarceration Court, known as ATI Court, which pairs treatment with close supervision and can spare some defendants prison time when a judge signs off, according to Gothamist.
Prosecutors opposed sending the case into ATI, arguing that the years-long pattern of covert recordings and the number of women involved made McAvoy a poor candidate for a diversion program.
What comes next
McAvoy is scheduled to report to Rikers on May 11, 2026 and begin his court-ordered therapy and probation. Any slip-up on the strict conditions could open the door to harsher penalties or additional incarceration.
Meanwhile, civil suits filed by some of the women who were recorded are moving forward, and the outcome of McAvoy's case is already fueling a wider debate over when, if ever, treatment courts should be used in cases involving secret sex recordings.
