Texas Deputy Sheriff Accused Of Cyberstalking Worcester Girl

WORCESTER, MA — A Texas Deputy Sheriff is facing federal charges for cyberstalking a girl from Worcester County. The 25-year-old Deputy Sheriff was arrested in Bay City, Texas on Wednesday and had a federal court appearance in the Southern District of Texas on Thursday. He will appear in federal court in Worcester at a later date.

Pasquale T. "Gino" Salas met the young girl, who was 12 at the time, in 2014 through an online video game website called Minecraft, according to the charging documents. Salas and the girl talked on a private chat room and then moved to various other platforms, including text messaging, Skype and Snapchat.

Salas repeatedly solicited the girl to transmit sexually explicit images and videos of herself, according to the office of U.S. Attorney Andrew E. Lelling.

Starting in 2016 the charges allege that Salas intimidated the girl into keeping contact with him and sending more sexually explicit material by threatening to publish the sexually explicit images and videos she had sent to her family and her friends.

As recently as May 2019, when the girl attempted to end contact with Salas, he repeatedly sent threatening messages to her, using web-based applications to disguise the source of the communications, the U.S. attorney's office said.

If convicted, Salas faces up to five years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000.