Police officer accused of child porn possession waives hearing
UPPER HANOVER >> An Upper Hanover man who worked as a police officer with the Hilltown Township Police Department in Bucks County must answer to charges in Montgomery County Court that he possessed child pornography.
Matthew J. Reiss, 47, of the 1000 block of Ziegler Road in the Palm section of Upper Hanover, waived his preliminary hearing on Monday, before District Court Judge Maureen C. Coggins, on multiple felony counts of possessing child pornography in connection with alleged incidents that occurred at his home between April and May.
Reiss remains free on $75,000 bail while awaiting his next court hearing, a formal arraignment on the charges in county court later this year. After the formal arraignment hearing, a judge will set a trial date.
Assistant District Attorney Nicholas Beeson, captain of the district attorney’s Family Protection Unit, is prosecuting the case. Defense lawyer Nicholas James Reifsnyder represents Reiss, according to court records.
Authorities said the investigation found no connection between the child pornography and Reiss’ employment as a police officer with the Hilltown Township Police Department.
The Hilltown Township Police Department and the Bucks County District Attorney’s Office assisted with the investigation. Since his arrest, Reiss was placed on administrative leave by the police department, officials said.
The investigation began on April 16, when Montgomery County detectives received a CyberTip from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children regarding someone uploading two images of suspected child sexual abuse to a Google email account, according to the criminal complaint filed by county Detective Kathleen Kelly.
Detectives traced the internet address for the email account to Reiss’ Upper Hanover residence and a cell phone number associated with the account also was linked to Reiss, according to the arrest affidavit.
The investigation included a review of Reiss’ Google account and it uncovered 660 images of females ranging in age from toddler to adult, including 10 alleged images of child pornography, according to the criminal complaint. The child pornographic images depicted children under the age of 13 in various stages of undress or in sexual poses, detectives alleged.
The criminal complaint indicated detectives uncovered other images of clothed barefoot girls, toddlers to 10 years old, “with the focus of the images being the feet of the little girls.” Other images of clothed, barefoot girls, whose eyes were blacked out in the photos, also depicted the “little girls’ hands, ankles and big toes are bound together and they are being tickled,” according to the criminal complaint. Another image depicted a child’s feet shackled together, court documents alleged.
Also found in the Google account were computer depictions of child sexual abuse images, detectives alleged.
Google also provided chats created in the account allegedly linked to Reiss. In one July 15, 2020, chat with someone Reiss allegedly identified himself “as working for the local government,” according to the criminal complaint.
Detectives showed up at Reiss’ home in May with a search warrant and seized his cell phone, court documents indicated.
Officials said county detectives, along with specially trained and sworn detectives from police departments in Montgomery County, routinely work with the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force to protect children from internet predators by aggressively and proactively investigating internet crimes that exploit children.