LOWER MACUNGIE TOWNSHIP, Pa. — A Slatington man faces a mandatory 25 years in state prison if he is convicted of photographing a 10-year-old girl’s buttocks while working on a Lower Macungie Township home’s heating system, the Lehigh County district attorney’s office said Thursday.
Douglas Royer, 62, is charged with one count of invasion of privacy. Court records list it as a third-degree misdemeanor, the lowest grade of crime in Pennsylvania, which on its own carries up to one year in jail.
The 25 years comes from a state law for repeat sex offenders. It applies only when the person already has a conviction for a sex crime on the state’s list, and invasion of privacy is on that list.
State police records show a man named Douglas Warren Royer, born the same year, living in Slatington and registered as a sexually violent predator. Court records show he was convicted in 2004 of sexually assaulting a child under 13 in Lehigh County.
The district attorney’s office said it could not comment on Royer’s criminal history. The 2004 court records give a birth date four days off from the one in the new case. Whether the 25-year minimum applies is decided by a judge at sentencing.
Royer was arraigned Thursday before Magisterial District Judge Michael Faulkner, who set bail at $150,000. Court records show the bail was posted through a professional bondsman the same day. His preliminary hearing is set for 1:15 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 4, before Faulkner.
Royer was working at the home on Sept. 24, according to the district attorney’s office. While he was underneath the house making repairs, the girl brought him his cellphone, the office said.
The girl said that as she crawled out of the space, Royer used the phone to photograph her buttocks, according to the office. She said she did not know he had taken it, but Royer later showed her the photo and asked whether he should delete it.
Investigators found the photo on Royer’s phone after a judge signed a search warrant, the office said. The criminal complaint was filed Wednesday.
In the 2004 case, brought by Whitehall Township police, a jury found Douglas Warren Royer guilty of involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, aggravated indecent assault, indecent assault and corruption of minors, court records show. A judge sentenced him to five to 10 years in state prison. He has been on the state’s sex offender registry since 2013, according to state police.
Trooper Francis Vanore III of the state police barracks in Fogelsville investigated the new case, and Chief Deputy District Attorney Sara A. Moyer will prosecute it, the office said. Court records show the Lehigh County Public Defender’s Office is representing Royer.
The charge is an accusation, and Royer is presumed innocent unless proven guilty.
