A Schuylkill County man is facing 115 felony counts after State Police say a search of four SD cards turned up more than 100 sexually explicit images and videos of children.
Michael E. Moyer, 64, of Girardville, was arraigned Monday afternoon before Magisterial District Judge Edward Tarantelli on 115 counts of sexual abuse of children for possession of child sexual abuse material. Ninety-eight of the counts are graded as second-degree felonies and 17 as third-degree felonies.
State Police say the investigation began in January 2024, when the Frackville barracks received a report of suspected child sexual abuse material in Moyer’s possession.
A witness told police that after Moyer was arrested on Jan. 8, 2024, she was collecting some of his belongings for him, including clothing, when she found four SD cards in a pair of his overalls at the Girardville home the two shared. She told police she did not know Moyer to own any SD cards and put them into her cellphone to gain clarity about what they were.
The witness told police the cards held explicit images that appeared to involve toddlers, children, adolescents, and teenagers, and she concluded it should be reported to law enforcement. She told police she did not alter or manipulate any of the cards and turned them over.
A trooper examined the cards the next day to verify what the witness reported and saw what appeared to be an explicit image of a prepubescent child on one of them. The trooper stopped reviewing the card at that point and returned it to evidence.
Police say they obtained a search warrant for the four cards on Aug. 7 and downloaded their contents, which consisted of 12,236 files totaling 54.9 gigabytes.
One 32-gigabyte card contained six images identifying it as belonging to Moyer, including a photo of his Pennsylvania driver’s license, two selfie photos of his face, a photo of a vehicle registration plate, and photos of a vehicle registration card and insurance card bearing his name, police say.
A second 32-gigabyte card contained 28 explicit images of underage females along with adult pornography, police say. A 64-gigabyte card contained 79 explicit images of underage females, five artificially generated images of underage females, and three explicit videos involving underage boys and girls, according to police.
In total, police reported finding 112 photos and three videos depicting underage children. Of those, 98 images depicted girls who appeared to be prepubescent, police say. Those 98 images correspond to the 98 second-degree felony counts.
Troopers interviewed Moyer at the Frackville barracks on Monday morning. Moyer told police he currently has issues with his memory, but that there was a period where he had a “curiosity/interest in (viewing these images),” police say.
Moyer identified the selfie photos as himself and told police he used the SD cards to supplement the storage capacity of his cellphone, according to police. He told police his interest in children started as a curiosity, which led him to look at such images, and that he sought them on the “dark web” and downloaded them to the SD cards on his phone.
Moyer told police it was a mistake and a “lapse in judgement” to look at the images and that he was not sexually aroused by them, according to police. He told police he did not photograph or manufacture any of the images and did not disseminate them.
Moyer was remanded to Schuylkill County Prison on Monday, where he remained unable to post $25,000 bail. A preliminary hearing is scheduled for Aug. 19 before Tarantelli.
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