Uniontown businessman arrested in child-luring incident
A Uniontown businessman was arrested and charged with solicitation after he allegedly drove to Allegheny County and picked up a 15-year-old boy with whom he intended to have sex.
Jeremy S. Burnworth, 35, owner of Creative Computer Concepts and Geneva Marketing Group, was taken into custody Monday and arraigned by Allegheny County Magisterial District Judge Linda I. Zucco on single felony charges of corruption of minors, criminal use of communication equipment, unlawful contact with a minor and criminal solicitation of a minor along with single misdemeanor charges of disorderly conduct and unlawful contact with a minor following a traffic stop on Pittview Avenue in Reserve Township.
In the criminal complaint filed by township police Officer Brian Tully, the traffic stop was conducted when Burnworth, of Brushwood Road in North Union Township, was found traveling the wrong way on a posted one-way section of Mount Troy Road.
Tully said that he found both Burnworth and his passenger to be “nervous” when he approached the vehicle and, while talking to the teen, observed him to be “sweating and was nervous to a degree that his voice was shaking.”
The teen first told officers that he was 19 years old but later admitted that he was 15 and had left his Reserve Township home without parental consent, said Tully.
Burnworth advised police that he was “trying to help the boy but wanted to be discreet” but wouldn’t say what he was helping with, police said.
Both Burnworth and the teen allegedly told police that they had met on Grindr, an all-male, location-based social network, and had exchanged text messages.
After the teenager was taken into protective custody to be returned to his parents’ home, Burnworth agreed to allow police to search his car, where a box containing “sex toys” was found, said police.
During questioning, Burnworth admitted that he had sent 50 text messages to the teen, along with sexually explicit pictures, said police.
“Burnworth made other statements during questioning, admitting that his intention was to have sexual intercourse, most likely in his vehicle with the juvenile,” Tully stated in the criminal complaint.
Burnworth allegedly told police that he had had sexual encounters with three other people that he had met on Grindr over the past year and had “been fooled” in the past by a juvenile whom he later realized, after meeting him, was under the age of 18.
Burnworth was taken to Allegheny County Jail after he failed to post the $20,000 bond set by Zucco.
He faces a preliminary hearing June 12 before Magisterial District Judge Robert P. Dzvonick.