Ex-Bucknell student accused of filming men in bathroom denied return of laptop, phone, hard drive

Mar. 8—LEWISBURG — The laptop, hard drive and cellphone used to store child pornography and hundreds of images of men using a public urinal will not be returned to the former Bucknell University student who pleaded guilty last year to the criminal activity.

On Friday, Union County Judge Michael Piecuch denied a motion from Matthew Aaron Nowell, 22, of White House Station, N.J., and defense attorney Hank Clarke, of Lewisburg, to have Nowell's laptop, external hard drive and cellphone returned to him. Nowell, who pleaded guilty in July to a felony count of possession of child pornography and 16 misdemeanor counts of invasion of privacy, is currently serving a state prison sentence of 37 to 116 months at SCI-Mercer

Piecuch said the items are "derivative contraband," which means lawful material that was either used in the commission of a crime or was purchased with funds derived from an illegal enterprise.

Nowell, a senior at the time and paid manager of student organization Uptown Club, was charged last year when a New Jersey detective investigating the man for child porn alerted Bucknell University that they found videos of men using a public bathroom at the club located in Swartz Hall on Bucknell University campus. An officer went and discovered two cameras inside the men's bathroom, police said.

Nowell allegedly admitted to installing the camera and said he would come once a week and remove the memory cards and download them on his personal computer and external hard drive, according to police.

A file on Nowell's computer showed 162 videos showing 363 males exposing themselves in the bathroom between January 2021 and October 2022, police said.

When the computer was seized on Oct. 25, 2022, police found 175 videos and six pictures of young men either nude or engaged in sexual activity. At least 11 videos showed 500 images, including those of underage children, police said.

Nowell was living on Strohecker Farm Lane in East Buffalo Township at the time of the arrest.

The motion asked for the return of a Dell laptop, an iPad mini, a personal iPad and a Bucknell iPad, a Samsung Galaxy phone, three flash drives, a terabyte hard drive and an Analog Discovery 2. The Analog Discovery 2 is a multi-instrument test and measurement device that enables engineers to measure, visualize, simulate, and analyze mixed signal circuits of all kinds.

Nowell testified the laptop, hard drive and phone were used to store the illegal images, but the other items were not. He asked for the items to be wiped of all data and returned to factory settings if the motion was granted.

Nowell said he plans to continue his education by obtaining his electrical engineering degree. The computer equipment was custom made for this purpose, he said.

He asked for the items to be returned to him so he could avoid "a large financial burden" when released from prison. He wanted to "get his life back on track" by obtaining the degree, finding a job, paying his fines and become a contributing member of society, he said.

District Attorney Brian Kerstetter said the window for Nowell to appeal or file Post Conviction Relief Act petitions is still open. The equipment could be needed for future evidentiary purposes, he said.

Kerstetter also noted his office has limited resources to ensure the devices were wiped of all data so the former images could not be accessed again.

Piecuch said the Analog Discover would be returned to Nowell since it is not a device that can store images. He also denied the return of the iPad that belonged to Bucknell.

The judge gave Kerstetter 30 days to review the remainder of the items to ensure that they were not used to commit any crimes.

In addition to the state prison sentence, Nowell was ordered to pay $3,700 in fines plus court costs and fees. He must be a Tier 3 lifetime Megan's Law registrant. The Sexual Offenders Assessment Board determined that Nowell did not meet the criteria to be a sexually violent predator.