A Lehigh County counselor accused of secretly recording women at his Quakertown office faces new charges alleging he recorded a total of 21 people, including some staff members, according to authorities.
Bucks County District Attorney Jennifer Schorn said in a news release Wednesday that Jonathan Moyer, 55, of Alburtis, waived his preliminary hearing on numerous charges, including interception of oral communications, possessing an instrument of crime and invasion of privacy.
Charges were amended before the hearing to include the additional victims, the DA said.
The DA’s office in March charged Moyer with recording four women at the Quakertown office of Empower Life Coaching and Counseling, where he provided clinical counseling for more than 10 years.
He was the office’s program director and worked out of both the office in Quakertown and one in Bally, Berks County. His areas of practice were drugs and alcohol, anxiety, parent-child interaction and group family sessions.
Moyer set up a hidden camera in the bathroom of his office and recorded people secretly, according to authorities.
The DA said county detectives began their investigation when someone found a micro SD card that had a recording of Moyer setting up what appeared to be a hidden camera at his Quakertown office at 523 W. Broad St. Detectives found videos of several women using the bathroom, police said.
Detectives searched his home and his two offices. At his Quakertown office, they found a charging block and a key fob that was a covert video recorder with a micro SD card, according to authorities.
A suspicious looking USB charging block was found plugged into the wall directly across from the toilet, the DA’s office said. When the face plate of the device was removed, police found a camera with a micro SD card, the release states.
Investigators also found multiple charging block-like cameras, covert pens, SD cards and media storage devices while searching his home in Alburtis, authorities said. Detectives initially identified four alleged victims, and have since identified 17 more over the past few months, according the release. Three of the alleged victims are minors, police said.
Authorities said Moyer also often requested urine samples from people, even for those who weren’t there for addiction-related services, in order to “validate” drug tests. In two videos, he could be seen asking two different people to provide samples, according to the DA.
One of them followed his request and provided a sample, which was captured on video, the release states.
The DA’s office said investigators found out that several of the people recorded were victims of past sexual trauma, and in some instances that was the reason they were seeking counseling from him.
Empower Life Coaching and Counseling posted on its website shortly after Moyer’s arrest that staff have contacted clients to make them aware. The counseling center said at the time it believed the alleged recordings were from an isolated event.
Operations at both offices closed in late March.
Three former patients filed a class-action lawsuit against Moyer and the counseling center, alleging the center was negligent in hiring Moyer. The suit was filed in Bucks County Common Pleas Court a few weeks after charges were initially filed.
Moyer remains free after posting $150,000 bail. His attorney declined comment when reached Thursday.
