District Attorney Shugrue Held a Press Conference on Electronic Recording or Surveillance of Nude or Partially Nude Persons
Berkshire County-On Thursday, June 12th, Berkshire District Attorney Shugrue held a press conference on Electronic Recording or Surveillance of Nude or Partially Nude Persons. (Electronic Recording or Surveillance of Nude or Partially Nude Persons is casually referred to as Upskirting; however, this term is outdated.)
The District Attorney was joined by former Chief of the Appeals Unit Jeanne Kempthorne at the Berkshire District Attorney’s Office for the conference. Attorney Kempthorn has devoted herself over the past 5 years to changing this legislation following the appeals of the Commonwealth vs. Sam Wassilie case.
District Attorney Shugrue addressed three cases involving Electronic Recording or Surveillance of Nude or Partially Nude Persons as well as proposed legislation to introduce harsher penalties for such acts.
This month, Maxwell Hall, a student at Williams College was indicted on 16 charges on Electronic Recording or Surveillance of Nude or Partially Nude Persons. Hall is alleged to have implanted a small recording device that looked like a USB charging block. Over a period of approximately 6 hours, Hall captured images of 16 victims. The case is being investigated by the Williamstown Police Department and the Berkshire District Attorney’s Office Special Victims Unit.
Two other cases involving Electronic Recording or Surveillance of Nude or Partially Nude Persons recently occurred in the Berkshires including The Commonwealth vs. Sam Wassilie (in 2015 and then attempted surveillance indicted in 2022) and the Commonwealth vs. Ricci Allessio (incidents from 2020 then 2023 to 2024).
District Attorney Shugrue stated, “The despicable nature of this crime, however, is only a misdemeanor in Massachusetts when its victims are adults. If the criminal targets children, the crime is a felony; however, the minimum sentence does not match the seriousness of the crime.
The Commonwealth’s laws are not protecting victims of this crime to the extent they should be. Right now, if you’re 18 or older, the person who violates your privacy in this way may only face a misdemeanor charge —a misdemeanor for using a camera or a hidden device to record your most vulnerable moments. In some cases, the sentence might be nothing more than a fine.
To put this penalty into perspective, a person caught receiving or sharing explicit images of someone else faces felony charges receiving much harsher penalties than the person who actually took those images without consent in the first place. That doesn’t make sense—and it certainly doesn’t deliver justice.
Meanwhile, access to surveillance devices—tiny cameras, microphones, and other surveillance tools—is easier and cheaper than ever before. Technology is advancing quickly. As more perpetrators gain access to this technology, we expect that the crimes will only continue to grow in nature. Victims of these acts are left traumatized, humiliated, and often without any meaningful protection or recourse.
I am calling for immediate and common-sense updates to our legislation.”
Proposed legislation being worked on by Representative Leigh Davis of the 3rd Berkshire District and District Attorney Shugrue will do the following:
- Creating a felony for capturing images of adults
- Extending sentencing for perpetrators who are taking images of minors
- Creating sentencing for subsequent offense
On Tuesday, June 17th at 1pm, District Attorney Shugrue will testify in front of the House of Representatives in support of two of Representative Davis’s bills: the first criminalizing An Act relative to sexual assaults by adults in positions of authority or trust for which the District Attorney advocated for earlier this year and the second being legislation on involving Electronic Recording or Surveillance of Nude or Partially Nude Persons.