A Springfield man is facing 55 counts of possessing child sexual abuse material following an arrest last week.
Chad Lauletta, 50, is also charged with one count each of invasion of privacy for allegedly recording an adult woman engaged in a sex act without her knowledge and criminal use of a communication facility.
Chad Lauletta, 50, Springfield. (Courtesy Pennsylvania Attorney General’s Office)
“This investigation uncovered the defendant had compiled numerous illegal, lewd, or indecent images of children, as well as a video he had recorded and kept without the adult victim’s permission,” Attorney General Dave Sunday said in a news release Tuesday on Lauletta’s arrest. “This deviant behavior cannot and will not be tolerated, as reflected by the very serious charges filed in the case.”
According to the release:
An investigation by the Attorney General’s Child Predator Section began when an adult reported to police that they saw some concerning files on Lauletta’s phone.
Law enforcement questioned Lauletta and searched his home on Taylor Road in Springfield, assisted by Springfield Township police.
Agents found dozens of suspect child sexual abuse material files, as well as photos of underdressed girls who appeared to be in their early teens. It was determined that Lauletta took screenshots of many of the photos from social media, but appeared to have taken at least one of the photos himself.
Lauletta was preliminarily arraigned before Magisterial District Judge Michael Culp and remanded to the county jail in Concord in lieu of $1 million cash bail.
Lauletta is scheduled for a preliminary hearing before Culp on Feb. 5.
No defense attorney was listed on online court records. Senior Deputy Attorney General Michelle Laucella is prosecuting.