Former Student Arrested for 20 Criminal Charges

Former Class of 2027 student Jovante Gonzalez was arrested on Sept. 10 for 20 criminal charges — nine counts of photographing an unsuspecting nude person, nine counts of unlawful wiretapping, criminal harassment, and trespassing. 

Gonzalez is alleged to have installed a camera in one of the gender-inclusive bathrooms on the first floor of the Science Center, which was discovered by students and ACPD in mid April. A photo posted on the anonymous social platform Fizz then showed a substantially-sized camera and battery pack taped directly under the tampon dispenser. “Tell me why there is a camera pointed at the toilet at crotch level,” the post read.

The obvious location of the camera led some students to initially see it as a prank. “I [almost] thought it was fake because the camera was so conspicuous,” Stellan Small ’27 said.

In an article from the Daily Hampshire Gazette, Detective Sergeant Cara Sullivan from the Amherst College Police Department (ACPD) shared that the camera captured 16 women and three men in partial nudity. ACPD ultimately connected the camera to Gonzalez after cross-referencing the camera’s recordings to surveillance camera footage that showed Gonzalez in the area of the bathroom, as well as using information from a forensic evaluation of Gonzalez’s personal devices.

Before withdrawing from Amherst in June due to unknown reasons, Gonzalez was involved in a college hearing process regarding his alleged stalking of a female student. The student reported Gonzalez following her for multiple consecutive days in February, including waiting for her to exit an event while dressed in all black with a medical face mask on. There is possible evidence showing Gonzalez attached a camera disguised as a smoke detector in a residence hall at the end of a hallway. 

On Sept. 1, ACPD sent out a campus-wide email asking students, faculty, and staff to “[keep] an eye out for an unauthorized visitor,” referring to Gonzalez. According to Sullivan, students notice Gonzalez appearing twice on campus, once dressed in all black wearing a black wig. Gonzalez was formally charged each time for trespassing.

Small, who was Gonzalez’s first-year roommate, shared that they felt “unnerved” to have lived with Gonzalez after seeing the list of crimes he was charged for.

“I was [at] first shocked. My jaw was hanging open … I did have a brief couple minutes of wondering … if he had wiretapped me,” Small said. “I would have been [an] optimal test subject to see if [he] could sneak a camera into my room.”

Small added that although they ultimately do not believe they had been wiretapped, it still took them a “significant amount” of mental energy over the weekend to process the information.

Following his arrest in Springfield, Gonzalez was arraigned on Sept. 11 in Eastern Hampshire District Court, where he was released on personal recognizance by District Court Judge Becky Michaels, under the conditions that he have no contact with the victims or potential witnesses, undergo a mental health evaluation and comply with recommended treatment, stay off Amherst College property, and be monitored by GPS. Gonzalez will return to court on Nov. 4 for a pre-trial hearing, and is presumed innocent until proven guilty in court.

ACPD and the District Attorney’s office declined to comment further on this case as the investigation is still ongoing.