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27-year-old facing federal sex charges

YOUNGSTOWN — Matthew S. Bartchy, 27, of Ellett Road in Beloit, had an initial appearance before a U.S. District Court magistrate Tuesday and was ordered held in federal custody on a federal complaint accusing him of attempted sexual exploitation of children and receipt and distribution of child pornography.

He was first charged in March in Mahoning County Area Court in Sebring with 10 counts of pandering sexually oriented matter involving juveniles and several other sex offenses, according to Mahoning County court records. The Smith Township Police Department filed the charges, court records indicate.

Those charges were dismissed this week, however, after federal Magistrate Carmen Henderson signed the federal criminal complaint Friday.

A federal affidavit written by Julie Bevilacqua, a Cortland police officer who also works as an agent with the Mahoning County Sheriff’s Office and Mahoning Valley Human Trafficking Task Force, states that Bevilaqua was asked to assist with an investigation of Bartchy based on information from the Ohio Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force.

The task force obtained information regarding “child exploitation material” being uploaded to various platforms such as Instagram from an account connected to Bartchy.

The allegation was that more than 70 files involving child pornography were uploaded between Dec. 24, 2021, and Jan. 26, 2022. Bevilacqua viewed 15 of the files, “which depict files of child pornography,” the affidavit states.

During an investigation of the case, the Mahoning Valley Human Trafficking Task Force heard from an FBI agent working in Missoula County, Mont., and posing undercover as a 13-year-old girl. The agent said he heard from a person on Instagram stating that he or she was a 14-year-old girl. The person sent the agent images of a young girl in sexual situations. The purported 14-year-old girl asked the agent to send similar images.

The agent sent Instagram a request to preserve the contents of the Instagram account of the purported 14-year-old girl and obtained a search warrant to access the account.

The detective received the records for the Instagram account Feb. 8 and observed more than 1,000 images and videos, many of them depicting minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct. The Instagram account was traced to Bartchy at his home in Smith Township. Also provided were phone numbers and an email account for him, the affidavit states.

Mahoning County Area Court Judge Joseph Schiavone approved a search warrant March 14 for Bartchy’s home. Investigators seized a laptop computer and read Batchy his rights. He answered investigators’ questions, admitting he had numerous online conversations with juvenile females, requested nude photos from them and solicited minors to have sex with him, the affidavit states.

Bartchy has been in the Mahoning County jail since March 14, according to jail records.

His next hearing, called a preliminary and detention hearing, will be at 10 a.m. Jan. 14.

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