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Putnam County resident John Towers of Mahopac was arrested on Thursday, April 18 on child pornography charges, the US Attorney's Office of the Southern District of New York announced.
According to federal officials, from July 24, 2018, to December 9, 2019, Towers put hidden cameras in the bathroom of a privately owned public park in Putnam County to secretly record sexually explicit images of prepubescent minors. He would then transfer these recordings to a hard drive, officials added.
Officials did not identify the park where this alleged conduct happened.
Authorities eventually searched Towers' residence and found a hard drive that contained over 800 videos of females, including prepubescent girls, using the bathroom. Around 78 of these videos had file names including the term "yung," according to federal officials.
Additionally, officials said Towers was also found to have DVDs containing videos he downloaded from the internet that depicted prepubescent children engaging in sexual activity.
Towers was first arrested on Friday, March 29 in Putnam Valley and charged with child pornography possession. He was out on bail at the time of his second arrest on Thursday.
After his second arrest, Towers was charged with:
- One count of sexual exploitation of a minor, which carries a mandatory minimum sentence of 15 years in prison and a maximum sentence of 30 years;
- One count of possession of child pornography, which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison.
US Attorney Damian Williams called Towers' alleged actions "disturbing."
"As today’s arrest shows, we will use every tool available to law enforcement to investigate and prosecute those alleged to have sexually exploited children.”
Anyone with more information about Towers is asked to call the FBI at 1-800-CALL-FBI (225-5324).
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