A man employed by East Stroudsburg Area School District is accused of recording his fiancée's two minor daughters in the bathroom without their knowledge.
John Swineford, of East Stroudsburg, was charged in May with endangering the welfare of children, invasion of privacy, tampering with or fabricating physical evidence and possessing instruments of a crime.
Swineford was listed in the faculty section of the school's mathematics page before the page went under redesign.
Stroud Area Regional Police Department Chief Jennifer Lyon confirmed that Swineford worked for East Stroudsburg Area School District at the time of the incident.
Swineford's preliminary hearing is scheduled for Wednesday in the Magisterial District Court of Judge Paul Gasper.
The Pocono Record left a voicemail with the East Stroudsburg South principal's office Monday morning, seeking comment ahead of the hearing. The request had not been returned as of 5 p.m. Tuesday. The Pocono Record had previously sent emails to South Principal Matthew Triolo and former Superintendent William Riker inquiring about Swineford's employment status. Neither had replied as of Tuesday evening.
Swineford, reached by phone, declined comment and directed the Pocono Record to his lawyer, Brian Gaglione, of Leeth and Gaglione. Gaglione as of Tuesday evening had not responded to a request for comment made Monday afternoon.
According to the criminal complaint, a crisis suicide hotline received a call on May 1, 2023, from a man who told the operator, “I really messed up. I hurt my wife,” before hanging up.
The hotline requested a welfare check on the individual and provided Stroud Area police with the number from which the call came. Officer Michael Yosh discovered that it belonged to Swineford by using the department’s software, according to police.
Yosh went to Swineford's residence. Swineford told Yosh he was not going to do anything, then invited Yosh inside.
Upon being asked by Yosh if everything was OK, Swineford responded, “I really messed up, I hurt my wife," according to the affidavit of probable cause. The woman Swineford referred to as his wife was actually his fiancée, according to the affidavit.
Once it was established that the fiancée was OK, Yosh asked Swineford what had happened, to which Swineford said, “I recorded my soon to be stepdaughters in the bathroom,” according to the affidavit.
Swineford detailed that he used and got rid of a portable camera, according to the affidavit.
When Stroud Area police Sgt. John Vogt arrived, Yosh spoke with Swineford’s fiancée. She told police Swineford had confessed to her after dinner that night that he had recorded her daughters, then 17 and 12, in the bathroom on the morning of April 30, 2023.
According to the affidavit, Swineford reiterated to Vogt that he hurt his fiancée by recording her daughters in the bathroom, and admitted to destroying evidence by erasing the files and throwing the camera into the garbage.
Stroud Area police Officer Joseph Susinskas, who wrote the affidavit of probable cause, obtained a search warrant for Swineford’s residence.
According to the affidavit, Swineford admitted to Susinskas during the search, without being questioned, that he initiated a factory reset of two electronic devices, erasing any data that had been on them.
Police during the search seized two cell phones, three laptops, an iPad, a code generator, a portable camera, a tissue box camera and a modem.
When searching the contents of the devices under the search warrant terms, Susinskas confirmed that two devices had been reset to factory settings, according to the affidavit.
Swineford’s fiancée told Susinskas that she showered the morning of April 30, 2023, in addition to her daughters, and added that none of them was aware of the hidden camera in the bathroom.
Contributing: Managing editor Kathryne Rubright.
Max Augugliaro is the public safety and government watchdog reporter at the Pocono Record. Email him atMAugugliaro@gannett.com.
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