A retired Navy officer yesterday was sentenced to a year in jail for secretly videotaping his stepdaughters while they were undressing.

Robert T. Franks, 49, pleaded guilty to the charge earlier this year. Yesterday, Circuit Judge Michael Town imposed the maximum sentence for the offense.

Town said he may consider releasing Franks from jail after he has served six months of his sentence, but ordered him to complete five years of probation.

Franks' ex-wife and stepchildren wanted the defendant to be listed on the state's registry of sex offenders, but Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Leilani Tan said the privacy-violation law does not allow such registration.

"It appears there might be some kind of a loophole" in the law as currently written, Tan said.

She said she will be working with her office on proposing an amendment to the law at the next session of the state Legislature.

But Tan did note that Town ordered Franks to complete sex-offender treatment as part of his sentence.

Franks was featured on the television show "America's Most Wanted" after he left the jurisdiction to work as a construction manager in Louisiana.

He was arrested there in May 2008 and held on $500,000 bail before being extradited back to Hawai'i.

Franks apologized to his family members during yesterday's court session.