A 62-year-old Slatington man is accused of secretly photographing a young girl's buttocks while he worked underneath a Lower Macungie Township home repairing a heating system, according to court records. Douglas Royer was arraigned Thursday before Magisterial District Judge Michael Faulkner and is being held in Lehigh County Jail on $150,000 bail.
The incident happened on Sept. 24, according to LehighValleyLive.com, which reports that Royer was working on the home's heating system when the girl retrieved his cellphone for him. As reported by Daily Voice, Royer used that same phone to photograph her buttocks as she crawled out of the space where he had been working, and she was unaware the photo had been taken.
Royer later showed the image to the girl and asked whether he should delete it, the outlet reports. Investigators obtained a search warrant for his cellphone and recovered the photograph, according to the same account.
Charges and Bail
Royer was charged with misdemeanor invasion of privacy involving photographing another person's intimate parts, per the news release detailed by the Daily Voice report. He was ordered held at Lehigh County Jail under $150,000 bail following his arraignment.
Court records indicate Royer was being investigated by the Lehigh County Public Defender’s Office, but a defender had not yet been assigned. His preliminary hearing, where prosecutors must demonstrate sufficient evidence to warrant a trial, is tentatively scheduled for Nov. 4 at 1:15 p.m. before Faulkner, the same account notes.
Who Is Handling the Case
The case was investigated by Pennsylvania State Police Trooper Francis Vanore III, and it will be prosecuted by Chief Deputy District Attorney Sara A. Moyer, according to the Daily Voice report. The outlet states Royer could face a mandatory sentence of 25 years in state prison if convicted.
Lehigh County District Attorney Gavin Holihan issued a news release about the incident alongside Pennsylvania State Police Troop M, which is commanded by Capt. Seth Kelly.
What Pennsylvania Law Says About Invasion of Privacy
Under Pennsylvania's invasion-of-privacy statute, it is illegal to knowingly photograph, film, videotape or otherwise record another person without that person's knowledge and consent while they are in a state of full or partial nudity, when done for the purpose of arousing or gratifying sexual desire and the person has a reasonable expectation of privacy, according to the Pennsylvania General Assembly. The statute's definition of partial nudity includes displaying all or part of the buttocks with less than a fully opaque covering, per the same code section.
The grading of that offense depends on the number of violations: it is a second-degree misdemeanor if there is more than one violation, and a third-degree misdemeanor otherwise, according to the Pennsylvania General Assembly's statutory text. Separately, state law also addresses photographing a child under 18 engaging in a prohibited sexual act, an offense generally graded as a second-degree felony.
