Former Gow school administrator charged with possession of child pornography

BUFFALO, N.Y.-U.S. Attorney Trini E. Ross announced today that Matthew Fisher, 50, of South Wales, NY, was arrested and charged by criminal complaint with possession of child pornography, which carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Jonathan P. Cantil, who is handling the case, stated that according to the complaint, on October 15, 2023, Fisher turned his school-owned laptop into the IT Department because the keyboard was not working properly. On October 24, 2023, an IT employee was notified of a “Low Severity Alert” on Fisher’s school-issued laptop. While searching the laptop, the employee recovered files, which included links such as “Neverland” and “lost boys.” The employee accessed one of the webpages, which depicted naked boys under the age of 10 conducting sexual acts on each other. The employee copied and moved the files to a thumb drive and notified the Head of The Gow School. The thumb drive was turned over to the FBI and the Western New York Regional Computer Forensic Laboratory conducted a preliminary forensic analysis, which recovered images of child pornography. Some of the images appear to be from a covert camera and depict clothed, male children in a bedroom believed to be on campus of The Gow School. The images include timestamps ranging from January of 2019 through September of 2023. Fisher has been terminated from his position at the Gow School.

Fisher made an initial appearance this afternoon before U.S. Magistrate Judge Jeremiah J. McCarthy and is being held pending a detention hearing on November 17, 2023.

The complaint is the result of an investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Child Exploitation Task Force, under the direction of Special Agent-in-Charge Matthew Miraglia.

The fact that a defendant has been charged with a crime is merely an accusation and the defendant is presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty.    

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