BUTLER TWP — A Center Township man Thursday pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct for unlawfully videotaping a bikini-clad sunbather.

But prosecutors withdrew a more serious charge of invasion of privacy against Gary Lee Malley, 47, of Butler Township.

Township police charged Malley after members of the Butler Health and Fitness Center on North Duffy Road spotted him on a hillside July 6 armed with a video camera.

An officer found the suspect, still on the hillside, on property owned by the Christ Community Church, where Malley worked at the time in a lawn caretaking post.

A landscaper, he no longer works for the church, authorities said.

The officer confiscated the suspect's camera and later found it contained a 47-minute video of a woman in a red bikini lying by the center's pool.

The video was taken without the woman's knowledge, according to court records, and repeatedly "zoomed in on the female's crotch and buttocks."

Police charged Malley with third-degree misdemeanor counts of invasion of privacy and disorderly conduct.

But at the defendant's scheduled preliminary hearing Thursday, assistant district attorney Ben Simon and defense attorney Stephen Misko worked out a quick resolution to the case.

Malley agreed to plead guilty to a summary count of disorderly conduct, which carries a maximum sentence of 90 days in jail and a $300 fine.

The maximum penalty for each misdemeanor was one year in jail and a $2,500 fine.

District Judge Kevin O'Donnell ordered Malley to pay the maximum fine as well as $144.50 in court costs.

"The defendant also was put on notice that he was forbidden from going to the fitness center or onto property adjacent to it," Simon said, "or he will be charged with felony trespassing."

Misko said it was a good outcome for his client.

"This way," he said, "there's no criminal record, all the misdemeanors are dropped and he walks away with a fine."