BELCHERTOWN — A 22-year-old man from Springfield faces charges of wiretapping and photographing unsuspecting nude individuals after he allegedly placed a secret recording device inside of an Amherst College bathroom.
Jovante Gonzalez, 22, a former student at the college, was arraigned today in Eastern Hampshire District Court. He was arrested on Thursday and charged with more than 20 crimes — nine counts of photographing an unsuspecting nude person, nine counts of wiretapping, criminal harassment and trespassing — following an investigation by the Amherst College Police Department (ACPD). An arrest warrant was issued and executed for Gonzalez on Thursday.
District Court Judge Rebecca Michaels released Gonzalez on his own personal recognizance Friday under the conditions that he have no contact with any victim(s) or potential witnesses, undergo a mental health evaluation and comply with recommended treatment. He was also ordered to stay off Amherst College property, and will be monitored by GPS.
Assistant District Attorney Alexa Pascucci represented the commonwealth during the arraignment. Gonzalez’s attorney Jeffrey Burnstein, of Springfield, could not be reached for comment on Friday.
According to a statement of facts written by ACPD Detective Sgt. Cara Sullivan, Gonzalez withdrew from the college in June after receiving numerous trespassing charges and being involved in a college disciplinary hearing process for allegedly stalking a female student.
Despite having been issued two trespass notices barring him from campus, students spotted Gonzalez — in one instance wearing a gray wig and dressed entirely in black — walking around campus in September, according to campus police.
Sullivan wrote that the female student had reported Gonzalez following her home from the dining hall day on multiple and consecutive days in February and at one point, was seen on surveillance camera securing a camera disguised as a smoke detector in the hallway outside her dorm room.
“[The victim] observed Gonzalez follow her and a friend to Arms Music Building. [She] attended an event for two hours and when exiting, she noticed Gonzalez was waiting by the exit door,” Sullivan write. “Gonzalez was dressed all in black and wearing a face mask … I later reviewed video footage of this incident and observed Gonzalez waiting in the foyer of Valentine Dining Hall for [the victim] to leave and then he follows her.”
When police discovered a covert mini camera and battery pack hidden underneath the tampon dispenser of a gender-neutral bathroom at the college’s science center, 16 women and three men were audio and video recorded in a state of partial nudity, Sullivan wrote.
Sullivan was able to connect Gonzalez to the videos captured on the bathroom camera by cross-referencing the date and time surveillance camera footage showed Gonzalez entering the bathroom to recordings captured on the camera.
Additionally, Sullivan wrote that a maroon sleeve captured on the first video was similar in color to a maroon blazer that Gonzalez frequently wore.
When police obtained a search warrant for Gonzalez’s residence hall room in May, officers found a cell phone, four storage devices and an XBox, along with a user manual for the battery pack attached to the bathroom camera.
A search of Gonzalez’s laptop revealed a subfolder titled with the Unique ID number of the bathroom camera. Within the folder, Sullivan wrote that she found 30 video files of nude, or partially nude individuals using the bathroom — 21 women and nine men.
Videos in Gonzalez’s Recycling Bin on his laptop, Sullivan wrote, depict Gonzalez’s alleged stalking victim in the shared single bathroom of her residence hall.
“Other videos in the Recycling Bin folder show a single-stall bathroom that includes a shower. This bathroom is believed to be on the third floor of … Hall where [the victim] resided,” Sullivan wrote. “[The victim] is seen nude or partially nude while using this bathroom in six separate videos.”
Gonzalez is scheduled to be back in court on Nov. 4 for a pre-trial hearing. Gonzalez, who had been a member of the Class of 2027, has been trespassed from Amherst College and all Amherst College properties.
The investigation remains active and ongoing. Anyone concerned that he or she may have been recorded by the device is encouraged to contact ACPD at (413) 542-2291.
