A York County man was sentenced earlier this week to eight to 23 months of incarceration followed by nine years of probation after he pleaded guilty earlier this year to secretly recording women undressing in a Franklin & Marshall College dormitory bathroom.

Judge Dennis Reinaker handed down the sentence to John James Riley, of York Township, on Oct. 1. Riley had previously pleaded guilty in June to 19 counts of intercepting communications, 19 counts of criminal use of a communication facility, two counts of possession of an instrument of crime with intent and 19 counts of invasion of privacy.

Assistant District Attorney Jennifer Ponessa, who prosecuted the case, told the court that Riley’s actions destroyed his victims’ sense of security and upended their lives, calling his conduct “malicious” and arguing that a state prison sentence was warranted.

In particular, Ponessa noted that Riley told a clinical and forensic psychologist who assessed him that he was sexually aroused by the “secretness” of his actions and that he felt he “got one over” on the victims.

It took hundreds of hours of work on behalf of Lancaster City Bureau of Police Det. Jared Snader, who filed the charges against Riley, to identify 19 of the victims among thousands of images.

Several of the victims, Ponessa noted, have still not been identified.

But in handing down his sentence, Judge Reinaker, while saying the consequences of Riley’s actions to his victims is “hard to fathom,” said that a period of lengthy incarceration would not be in the community’s best interests.

Numerous victims had come forward prior to the sentence being handed down, urging Judge Reinaker to impose a state prison sentence. One by one, Riley’s victims described how his actions damaged their self-esteem, upended their trust in others, gave them the constant fear of being watched at all times, caused their academic pursuits to falter and, in several cases, caused them frequent panic attacks and nightmares.

“He needs to reap what he sowed,” said one victim who asked the court to impose a state prison sentence.

One victim described Riley’s actions as “a cold, calculated act without remorse.” A second victim said that learning she had been spied upon while nude made her feel “numb” and “angry.”

Yet another victim told the court she had not felt “clean” in the nearly two years since she discovered Riley’s camera hidden in the female part of the all-gender inclusive dormitory bathroom.

“I wanted to die,” the victim told the court as her voice nearly reached to a shout. “I have never felt like less than a human being.”

Since discovering that her privacy was violated the same victim said she often thought she would be better off dead than having to live another day through what she described as “a living hell” and a “prison” of Riley’s creation of “violation, pain, fear and distrust in others.”

Several of the victims described Riley as a friend and expressed shock when they discovered that he had been the one who planted the camera.

But Riley, they concluded, was never truly a friend to them.

“He betrayed me,” a fourth victim told the court. “He betrayed all of us.”

At several points during the victims’ statements Riley lowered his head and began crying.

Before handing down his sentence Judge Reinaker commended the victims for their courage in coming forward and the eloquence of their statements to the court, adding that as a Franklin & Marshall graduate himself they “made me proud.”

When given the chance to speak for himself Riley apologized toe the victims, saying he understood how his actions “scarred” them.

“What I’ve done is ruin lives,” Riley told the court, “and I’m sorry.”

As part of his sentence, Riley must spend the first year of his probation on house arrest. Riley is also prohibited from contacting any of the victims or their families and is banned from being within 500 yards of the Franklin & Marshall campus.

Riley, 20, hid a camera in multiple locations within the bathroom between September and November 2023, amassing more than 1,000 separate recordings of numerous victims in various stages of nudity as well as private conversations, which he later told police he used for sexual gratification.

None of the 19 victims identified in the videos consented to being recorded by Riley, who was a Franklin & Marshall student at the time.

Female students eventually found the camera and turned it over to Franklin & Marshall Public Safety, who in turn provided it to police.