Charged with installing cameras in a restroom
A former Stonecrop Gardens employee was arrested on April 18 and accused of secretly filming girls in 2018 and 2019 as they used a public restroom.
A criminal complaint filed in federal court accuses John Towers, 54, of Mahopac, of making more than 800 hidden-camera videos that also captured women inside stalls as they used the toilet.
The complaint describes the scene of the alleged crimes only as a “privately owned, public park in Putnam County” and states that Towers had worked there for 20 years, since 2004. A Facebook profile for John Towers identifies him as a Mahopac High School graduate employed at Stonecrop since August 2004, and archived Stonecrop material, such as a newsletter from 2007, identifies John Towers as a part-time horticulture assistant.
Towers was arraigned April 18 and released on a $200,000 bond until his next court date, scheduled for May 15.
Stonecrop did not respond to an email or phone message seeking comment. [Update: On May 7, Stonecrop issued this statement: “The individual who was arrested has been terminated from our employment. We are fully cooperating with law enforcement officials in their investigation. Our No. 1 priority is ensuring the safety and privacy of our staff and the public who visit our beautiful gardens.“] The park was created in 1958 by Frank Cabot and his wife, Anne, on their 60-acre property on Route 301 and opened to the public in 1992. Towers’ attorney, Michael Burke of White Plains, also did not respond to an email or phone message.
In the criminal complaint, filed April 17, a Putnam County Sheriff’s Office investigator assigned to an FBI task force said that, during a raid at Towers’ home, officers seized a desktop computer with a 2-terabyte hard drive that contained 816 videos taken with cameras hidden in a park restroom, including 78 with the word “yung” in the title and at least 15 that depict children. According to the complaint, the videos were created between July 2018 and October 2019.
According to the complaint, the investigation began in February after the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children passed along a tip from an internet service provider that a customer with a phone number associated with Towers had uploaded 57 files depicting child pornography to its cloud storage.
Responding to a search warrant, the company provided more than 6,000 images and videos that had been uploaded by the customer, including photos that depict girls and women in stalls in a restroom with blue-and-white tile walls. At least one image was embedded with GPS data that indicated it had been taken at the privately owned, public park. Mark Tunney, the Putnam County investigator, said in the complaint that he visited the park and noted its restrooms have blue-and-white tile walls.
During an early morning raid on March 29 at Towers’ home in Mahopac, police seized 10 spy cameras, including three that resembled ballpoint pens; 20 DVDs with explicit content; a cellphone and the desktop computer. Towers was arrested and arraigned in Carmel Town Court on six charges related to the DVD images and sent to the Putnam County jail before being released on bail.
According to the complaint, investigators searching the computer found a folder with the 816 videos, whose titles included the word “visitor” and a date, that were focused on a toilet in a restroom with blue-and-white tile walls. A number of the videos appear to show the same person from different angles, suggesting multiple cameras, the complaint said. Towers allegedly captured screen shots from the videos.
Investigators said they identified the mother of a 7-year-old whose genitals were filmed as she used the park restroom in July 2018. The woman showed police a photo taken of her daughter on the same day in which the girl was wearing the white tank top shown in the video, with the word “Summer” across the front.
