Northeast
New York man allegedly placed hidden cameras in public park restroom; captured explicit images of children
A New York man secretly recorded hundreds of women and girls in a public restroom at a local park where he worked, federal prosecutors allege.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office, Southern District of New York, said that 54-year-old John Towers planted hidden cameras in the ladies’ room of a public park in Putnam County, New York — authorities declined to share the name of the public park.
Towers allegedly used the planted cameras to capture “prepubescent minors” and females using the bathroom.
“John Towers’s alleged disturbing conduct violated the public’s trust by placing hidden cameras in a public bathroom and using those cameras to capture sexually explicit images of children,” U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said. “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.”
TEXAS MOM WHO FATALLY SHOT TEENAGER BREAKING IN THROUGH DAUGHTER’S WINDOW WON’T BE CHARGED
John Towers (U.S. Attorney’s Office, Southern District of New York)
Towers allegedly used an old cellphone and 10 “spy cameras” to record approximately 800 explicit videos of girls and women using the bathroom, a Manhattan federal complaint said.
They also found more than 6,000 images and videos that had been uploaded to the internet, according to the complaint.
Authorities said that three of the spy cameras were designed to look like ballpoint pens, and others looked like a battery pack, an antenna and a tiny camera that looked like a button.
Towers transferred the recordings to a hard drive, prosecutors alleged.
When investigating Towers’ home on March 19, authorities found computers and hard drives filled with pornographic images.
Many of the files contained the misspelled term “yung,” prosecutors alleged.
CALIFORNIA HOMEOWNER SHOOTS HOME INVASION SUSPECT, ANOTHER DEAD IN TARGETED HEIST: POLICE
Federal authorities believe that the hidden cameras were in the bathroom from at least July 24, 2018, until Dec. 9, 2019.
John Towers was charged for planting hidden cameras inside public restrooms. (iStock)
Towers is charged in the federal complaint with sexual exploitation of a minor, which carries a mandatory minimum sentence of 15 years in prison and a maximum sentence of 30 years, and possession of child pornography, which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison.
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Connecticut
Several injured in I-91 crash involving multiple vehicles in Hartford: Officials
Multiple people were taken to the hospital following a crash on Interstate 91 in Hartford, officials said.
The Hartford Fire Department was called to the crash just before 6 p.m. The crash involved six to eight vehicles, according to officials, and happened on the southbound side near exit 33.
Multiple ambulances were also called to the scene, including one advanced life support unit.
Fire officials said all patients were helped at the scene before being taken to the hospital. It’s unknown at this time how many were injured and the severity of their injuries.
The Connecticut State Police assisted with traffic control and will investigate the crash.
Maine
‘I could die here’: Photographer recalls Maine wedding stabbing
A Massachusetts photographer was seriously injured when he was stabbed during a wedding reception last month in Raymond, Maine.
Donald Halsing, 26, was hospitalized for five days after the stabbing on May 23. NBC affiliate News Center Maine reported that 26-year-old Andrew Manderson was arrested and charged with elevated aggravated assault.
Still recovering, Halsing told NBC10 Boston the attack came out of nowhere — one moment, he was snapping photos on the dance floor, while the next, he was searching for help as blood spilled onto his camera.
“I was sitting there in that chair thinking, ‘There’s a real possibility I could die here,’” Halsing said. “Immediately, I put my hand on my chest here to try and stop the bleeding, get some pressure on it, and started yelling for help.”
Halsing was working at the reception at the Kingsley Pine Campgrounds. He took his last photo at 9:01 p.m., minutes before the stabbing.
“One of the wedding guests came up to me and started asking questions about our business,” he said.
Halsing said it was nothing out of the ordinary, and he tried to explain his photography business to the inquiring guest through the pulse of the DJ booth and celebrating guests.
“I thought he was going to reach in his back pocket for his phone, and instead, he didn’t pull out his phone — he pulled out a pocket knife and stabbed me,” he said.
Manderson, who faced a judge days later, is a cousin of the bride.
“There was this look in his eyes that he wasn’t quite all there,” Halsing said.
Halsing’s fiancée, Ashley Wall, was feet away as he struggled to stay awake. She has been his photography partner for eight years since they met at Framingham State University, and she was helping him work the wedding.
“People who were around me, they asked, ‘What can we do to help you? What do you need?’ And I said, ‘Please go check on Ashley. Please go check on my fiancée,’” he recalled.
Halsing spent five days in the hospital suffering from two lacerations to his liver, ultimately developing a blood clot in his left leg. But the road to recovery exceeds his physical wounds as he contemplates his mental state when he resumes photography next year.
“I’m also worried about what lingering effects there might be,” he said. “If we get out on the dance floor and I start remembering what happened, I don’t know how I’m going to react.”
Halsing still doesn’t know why he was attacked.
Manderson was released on $50,000 bail and is due back in court in October.
Massachusetts
Mass. House votes to set new rules for DiZoglio’s audit
Twenty-eight lawmakers dissented Wednesday as the Massachusetts House voted to set new terms around what state Auditor Diana DiZoglio would be able to review in the legislative audit voters authorized her to carry out in 2024.
Almost all House Democrats voted for the measure, which also proposes to make more state government records accessible to the public. Three Democrats — Cambridge Rep. Mike Connolly, Attleboro Rep. Jim Hawkins and Fall River Rep. Alan Silvia — joined the body’s 25 Republicans in voting no.
Speaker Ron Mariano said the bill responds to an ongoing call from voters for more transparency out of Beacon Hill and provides a path forward in lieu of a what he called “politically motivated audit conducted in violation of the Constitution.”
Leaders of the House and Senate have resisted DiZoglio’s audit push, arguing that a probe by the auditor’s office would run afoul of the separation of powers laid out in the state Constitution, bringing the legislative branch under the review of a piece of the executive branch.
“We are not accountable to any constitutional officer,” said Rep. Mindy Domb, an Amherst Democrat. “We are only accountable to our constituents.”
Taunton Rep. Lisa Field, a Democrat in her first term, said she was among the 72% of Massachusetts voters who backed the audit ballot question in 2024.
“Due to legitimate concerns and questions about constitutional privileges and separation of powers, we have been stuck on this audit issue for more than a year,” Field said. “Let’s not be like Washington, D.C. and accept such gridlock — not about the audit and not about public records. Let’s not let perfect be the enemy of good progress.”
The House’s bill would authorize DiZoglio to review what it defines as the “administrative functions” of the Legislature, going back to the 2021 fiscal year. Those areas include the adoption of annual budgets, official audits of the House and Senate by independent firms, spending by both chambers, and the execution of any financial settlements with lawmakers and employees.
It would also newly apply the state’s public records law to the governor’s office, and create a process by which people could request and receive certain legislative files.
Massachusetts is currently the only state where the Legislature, governor and judiciary all claim to be exempt from the public records law.
Warren Republican Rep. Todd Smola described the process that led up to Wednesday’s vote as opaque in and of itself. Mariano last week said the House would take up what he called comprehensive transparency legislation, but did not say when or what, specifically, the bill would do.
The bill was circulated to members of the House Ways and Means Committee around 10:30 a.m. Tuesday, and committee members had a little over a half hour to vote on whether to advance it. Smola, the ranking Republican on the committee, said during that 34-minute window, “we had members on both sides of the political aisle that were calling each other back and forth to say, ‘Can you explain this portion to me?’”
“We are so much better than the process that has unfolded,” he said. “And for the sake of people that are asking us for transparency, that is not transparency. That’s the opposite of transparency.”
Rep. Michael Soter, a Bellingham Republican, said he was particularly concerned with a part of the bill that removes the courts from settling disputes between the auditor and the Legislature.
He said that by setting its own rules around an audit, the House would be “ensuring the auditor can only see exactly what we allow her to see and nothing more.”
It’s not clear yet if the Senate will pass the bill. Last week, state senators voted to turn over a limited set of documents to DiZoglio. The documents the Senate plans to provide mirror the records she would be allowed to review under the House bill.
Asked if he expected the Senate to agree to the legislation, Mariano on Tuesday said only, “I talked to the Senate.”
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