Police: Kingston man sought nude photos from 15-year-old boy

Bob Kalinowski, The Citizens' Voice, Wilkes-Barre, Pa.
·2 min read

Apr. 9—KINGSTON — Despite worrying he might be talking to an undercover cop, a Kingston man had sexually explicit conversations with a person he thought was a 15-year-old boy, police alleged in charges filed Thursday.

But the person was a Kingston police detective posing as the boy.

Police on Thursday charged John William Dawe, 39, with sexual abuse of a minor, illegal communication with a minor and criminal use of a communications device.

Following his arraignment by Magisterial District Judge James Haggerty, Dawe was jailed in the Luzerne County Correctional Facility. Haggerty denied Dawe bail.

Court documents say "no combination of conditions will reasonably assure the safety of minor children in the community."

Dawe, the former executive director of the NEPA Rainbow Coalition, runs a Wilkes-Barre consulting firm that has worked for various influential local non-profit organizations and political campaigns in Northeast Pennsylvania.

Arrest papers say Dawe contacted the supposed minor on social media in January and knew from the outset it was wrong to talk sexually. He also worried the person was a law enforcement officer posing as the boy, police said.

"But now you're not available to stuff and things. You're not old enough to legally give consent for anything sexual in (Pennsylvania), so that's a bummer. I mean you could be a cop or FBI agent or something," Dawe purportedly wrote.

But Dawe continued to contact the pretend boy and the conversations got increasingly sexual, police said.

During a search warrant at Dawe's Kingston home on April 8, Dawe admitted to asking the boy several times for explicit photos and for trying to video chat while he believed the boy was masturbating, police said.

A preliminary hearing is set for April 20.

Police noted in arrest papers Dawe was previously arrested for possession of child pornography. Court records show Dawe was arrested for possession of child pornography while a student at Mansfield University in Tioga County in 2002 and the case ended in a "migrated disposition."

Contact the writer:

bkalinowski@citizensvoice.com

570-821-2055; @cvbobkal

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