Mar. 1—WILKES-BARRE — Detectives with Luzerne County and West Hazleton police executed a search warrant Wednesday arresting a Wilkes-Barre man on allegations he possessed child sexual abuse materials.

Jared M. Pieck, 33, of North Empire Street, admitted he downloaded the explicit images for self-gratification, according to court records.

Pieck was arraigned by District Judge Donald Whittaker in Central Court on 45 counts of possessing child pornography and three counts of criminal use of communication facility. Pieck was jailed without bail at the county correctional facility as Whittaker deemed him a flight risk.

According to the criminal complaint:

County Det. Charles Balogh and West Hazleton Det. Richard Naprava, members of the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force and state police Northeast Computer Crime Unit, investigated a cyber-tip generated by Snapchat in August 2022, and a cyber-tip generated by Google in January linked to emails registered to Pieck.

The cyber-tips involved uploaded and downloaded images of semi-nude girls, the complaint says.

Detectives served a search warrant at Pieck's residence where he admitted to downloading images of child sexual abuse materials "on and off since puberty" for self-gratification, according to the complaint.

With the assistance of Spike, a canine trained in finding electronic devices, detectives found a cellular phone that allegedly had 38 images and a laptop computer that had three images of child sexual abuse materials in Pieck's residence.