A Montgomery County Common Pleas Court judge sentenced an Upper Hanover man who used to work as a police officer in Bucks County to 11 1/2 to 23 months in county jail on child pornography charges.

            Wendy Rothstein issued the sentence for Matthew J. Reiss, 49, of Ziegler Road in the Palm section of the township, on July 21.

            Reiss, a former officer in Hilltown Township, pleaded guilty to three felony counts of possessing child pornography in March. He entered the plea to avoid a bench trial before Rothstein on two separate cases.

            Montgomery County detectives arrested Reiss – who was represented by Nicholas James Reifsnyder, a private attorney from Norristown – on May 26, 2021, and filed 50 felony counts of child pornography against him in the Red Hill court of District Judge Maureen Coggins. He waived his right to a preliminary hearing on the charges.

            On April 16, 2021, Montgomery County detectives received a cybertip from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children regarding the upload of two child sexual abuse images to a Google email account. The IP address for the Gmail account was traced to the defendant's residence in Palm. In addition, the cellphone number associated with the Gmail account was a known phone number of the defendant.

            Detectives served a search warrant on Google for information about the Gmail account. On May 19, the investigation received 660 images, which included 10 images that were of child pornography, depicting children under the age of 13 in various stages of undress, in sexual poses and being sexually assaulted.

            As part of the search warrant, chats were also provided to investigators. In one chat, the defendant noted that he works for a local government entity. However, the investigation found no connection between the child pornography and his employment.

            Two months later, police filed additional charges after claiming to discover additional child pornography images on his electronic devices. On July 15, 2021, he was arrested and arraigned by Whitpain District Judge Suzan Leonard on 1,645 criminal counts. During the ensuing preliminary hearing before Coggins, prosecutors withdrew 595 criminal counts, according to the judicial website.

            Reiss had remained free on bail since posting the $75,000 monetary set by Coggins after his initial arrest. The judge added non-monetary conditions to his bail that prohibit unsupervised contact with minors and recreational use of the internet. Leonard set bail in the second arrest, over the objections of prosecutors, at $10,000 unsecured, according to information posted on the judicial website.

            The Hilltown Township Police Department and Bucks County District Attorney's Office assisted with the investigation. The police department placed Reiss on administrative leave after the arrest, according to a news release from the office of Montgomery County DA Kevin Steele.