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Grand Jury Returns 97-Count Indictment Against Former Mt. Laurel Police Officer

A grand jury returned a 97-count indictment against a former Mt. Laurel police officer who was charged with hacking into the social media accounts of multiple women and distributing nude images they kept of themselves.

(Photo provided)

Burlington County Prosecutor LaChia L. Bradshaw announced that a grand jury returned a 97-count indictment against a former Mount Laurel police officer who was charged in 2022 with hacking into the social media accounts of multiple women and distributing nude images they kept of themselves.

Ayron Taylor, 24, of Moorestown, was indicted on 54 counts of Elements of Computer Theft (Second and Third Degrees), 21 counts of Endangering the Welfare of a Child, including Distribution of Child Pornography (Second and Third Degrees), 19 counts of Invasion of Privacy (Second and Third Degrees), two counts of Attempted Elements of Computer Theft (Second and Third Degrees) and one count of Official Misconduct (Second Degree).

The charges in the indictment, which was returned on February 15, relate to illegal activity targeting approximately 20 separate victims, all female. Taylor is charged with accessing their social media accounts without permission, and in several instances, distributing their nude photos to people on their contact lists.

The child pornography distribution charges were filed because some of the photos he accessed were taken before the victims became legal adults.

The official misconduct charge applies because some of Taylor’s actions occurred while he was on duty as a police officer. It is alleged that he used personally-owned electronic devices during that time, not anything that belonged to the police department.

Arraignment

An arraignment will be held March 11 in Superior Court in Mount Holly, and the case will then be scheduled for trial.

The investigation began in September 2022 after the initial victim contacted Evesham Township police to report that her Snapchat and Facebook accounts had been hacked by an unknown person who then sent nude photos she had taken of herself to her Snapchat contacts, messaged them to her Facebook friends, and posted them on her Facebook wall.

The investigation determined the commonality among all victims was that each one had a student email account through Rowan College of Burlington County. The investigation further determined that Taylor illegally accessed approximately 5,000 RCBC email accounts.

Taylor became a full-time officer in Mount Laurel after graduating from the police academy in October 2021. The department took immediate action to suspend him following the initial charges. Taylor resigned after measures were taken to terminate his employment.

RCBC officials have been cooperative with law enforcement throughout the investigation.

The investigation was conducted by the BCPO High-Tech Crimes Unit and the Evesham Township Police Department, with assistance from the Mount Laurel Police Department, Delran Police Department, the New Jersey State Police and the Riverside Police Department. The lead investigator was ETPD Detective Christopher DeFrancesco. Taylor is being prosecuted by Assistant Prosecutor Stephen Eife, supervisor of the BCPO Special Victims Unit.

An indictment is an accusation. Defendants are presumed innocent unless or until proven guilty in a court of law.

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