BUTLER TWP. — A man from Berks County was arraigned in Butler Township on Thursday on allegations he sent sexually explicit messages and solicited nude photographs from a teenage girl.
Jonathan Joseph Cruz, 29, of Reading, began sending the illicit messages to the girl shortly after they met through friends in June 2024, according to the criminal complaint.
The girl told investigators, the complaint alleges, she would communicate with Cruz using three social media platforms and Cruz used different user names.
The complaint alleges Cruz asked the girl to call him “daddy” while asking her if she wanted to see explicit pictures of himself. Online communications continued for several months to include Cruz allowing the girl to use his online Sony PlayStation account to play games in exchange for nude pictures, the complaint alleges.
The girl’s mother contacted police in Butler Township in May to report the alleged online sexually explicit messages.
An extraction of the girl’s phone recovered multiple messages with Cruz, the complaint says.
Cruz was arraigned by District Judge Daniel O’Donnell of Butler Township on charges of possession of child sexual abuse materials, criminal use of communication facility and unlawful contact with a minor. He was jailed at the Luzerne County Correctional Facility for lack of $50,000 bail.
The Pennsylvania Attorney General’s Office assisted in the investigation.