Maxwell Hall ’26 has been charged with 18 counts of photographing an unsuspecting nude person, according to court documents obtained by the Record.
Director of Campus Safety Services (CSS) Jeff Palmer sent out a campus-wide email on April 14 informing the community that a hidden camera had been placed in a single-stall bathroom in the Upper Lasell Fitness Center on January 16. Palmer wrote in the email that the Williamstown Police Department (WPD) had identified a student as the suspect, but did not provide a name at the time.
The Record acquired court documents at the Northern Berkshire District Court on Thursday that named Hall and matched the description of the incident in Palmer’s email.
The Berkshire District Attorney filed the charges against Hall on March 20, and his arraignment at the Northern Berkshire District Court is scheduled for June 2 at 8:30 a.m. He has not yet entered a plea, and his lawyer, Peter Charles Horstmann, declined to comment on the proceedings. The charges Hall faces carry the potential punishment of up to two and a half years of imprisonment and a fine of up to $5,000.
According to WPD Sergeant Shuan William’s statement of facts, the WPD received a call from CSS on January 16 stating that CSS had identified a “surveillance/spy camera” in the bathroom. A student had found a device that appeared to be a phone charger but had a hole in it, through which a camera was recording, and reported the device to CSS.
“CSS’s response was two-pronged,” Palmer wrote in an email to the Record. “We brought in WPD right away and worked with our Facilities colleagues to sweep the campus to ensure there were no other devices… The second prong was ensuring that those impacted were connected to resources on campus and those provided by the District Attorney’s Office and WPD.”
The WPD examined the SD card inside the device and confirmed that the camera had recorded videos capturing 18 people in the bathroom in “various stages of undress,” along with a fragmented image inside a College dorm room, according to the sergeant’s report.
Palmer’s April 14 email stated that WPD had yet to identify six of the victims.
In its investigation, the WPD executed two search warrants, and used evidence from key-card swipes, CSS reports, College emails, and a search of the suspect’s dorm room, in which they found “corroborating items,” to identify Hall as the suspect. The WPD also interviewed someone in whom Hall had confided. Both warrants are currently impounded, and were thus not accessible through a public records request.
When the District Attorney filed the charges against Hall on March 20, his arraignment was originally scheduled for last Friday, but on April 11 it was rescheduled for June 2 after the DA’s office and Hall’s lawyers filed a joint motion to postpone it. “Both parties agree[d] that additional time prior to the arraignment of this matter would be beneficial, as additional information regarding this matter is expected in the coming weeks,” the motion stated.
Hall has not been arrested but has not been on campus this semester, Dean of the College Gretchen Long wrote in an email to the Record. “As for any disciplinary actions or Title IX proceedings, all of that is held in strict confidence for any student,” Long wrote.
“The case will proceed through the court system, and the DA’s office in partnership with WPD will manage that effort,” Palmer wrote in an email to the Record. “Meanwhile the College will continue to provide support to those impacted.”
