Charges dropped in locker room video case

All charges have been dropped against a Montgomery County man accused of recording cell video of students inside a locker roomat Perkiomen Valley High School last month, after officials said it was a simple misunderstanding.

Invasion of privacy and related charges against John Lyons Jr., 53, of Collegeville, were withdrawn after an investigation showed no crime had been committed, the Montgomery County District Attorney’s Office said Wednesday.

“The investigation conducted by the Pennsylvania State Police was completed March 30,” the office said in an email to Digital

First Media. “After reviewing the completed investigation, we found there was not sufficient evidence to proceed with the case, so the charges were withdrawn.”

The whole situation was a complete misunderstanding involving a father trying to do something nice for his daughter’s swim team, defense attorney Greg Gifford said, adding the charges were filed prematurely.

On Saturday, Feb. 18, the high school hosted the Perkiomen Invitational Swim Meet, where aman was seen allegedly using a cell phone to record activity in the boys’ locker room, the district said initially, as reported by the Pennsylvania State Police in Skippack. Due to the large size of the event, the boys locker room was being used by female athletes attending the swim meet.

Lyons’ daughter swims for Perk Valley, said Gifford, who handled the case with attor- ney Tom Egan. During the meet, Lyons was standing by the snack bar and heard singing coming from the locker room down the hall. He thought it would make great audio for an end of the year team video and told another parent he was going down to get a recording. He walked down the hall to get closer to the locker room but didn’t go inside. Unfortunately, Lyons didn’t realize he was standing outside of the other team’s locker room by mistake and as he was recording, one of the fe- male athletes came out and saw him.

“The girl from another team saw a strange man with his phone up and the rest is history,” Gifford said.

Lyons returned to the snack bar and showed other parents the video, which featured just cinder block and singing. When police arrived, they never got statements from the parents Lyons met with to corroborate story. Trooper Brendan Shearn, the officer in charge of handling the investigation, was unavailable for comment by press time Wednesday.

Lyons didn’t know he’d been charged until several days after the incident took place, Gifford explained. Given the heavy media attention, his employer broke the news and suspended him.

“It was a nightmare,” Gifford said.

After police realized they’d made a mistake, they brought in the other parents to get their statements, Gifford said. That led to the charges being dropped.

“Police did right thing and reviewed the charges,” he said. “I give state police a lot of credit forwithdrawing the charges right away.”

Lyons spoke to his employer and he was scheduled to return to work on Thursday, said Gifford.

In a statement to Digital First Media, Perkiomen Valley School District officials said they were relieved to hear the charges have been dropped.

“We continue to review policies and procedures in order to protect student safety during public sporting events,” the district said.