Former Bridgeville Cop Charged in Internet Sex Sting

The state attorney general’s office announced that it has charged a Bridgeville man and former borough police officer with propositioning teen girls on multiple occasions in Internet chat rooms.

James W. Radermacher, 48, faces three felony charges of unlawful contact with a minor and one count of criminal use of a computer, acting Attorney General Bill Ryan said.

According to a criminal complaint supporting the arrest, Radermacher thought he was talking to 13- and 14-year-old girls on two occasions in July 2010. The teen girls were actually undercover agents with the attorney general’s Child Predator Unit. Radermacher made sexual comments and sent nude and explicit photos to the agents, according to the complaint.

The attorney general said that in one of the first conversations Radermacher wrote, “that's all the clean pics I have, lol. the others are naughty" and later sent nude photos to who he thought was a teen girl from central Pennsylvania. Radermacher had several more conversations with the undercover decoy, including one as recently as April 6, according to the complaint.

Radermacher was arrested at his Sarah Street home on Tuesday by agents from the attorney general’s office and Bridgeville police. He was arraigned by District Judge Maureen McGraw-Desmet, who set his bond at $75,000, and a preliminary hearing is scheduled for Monday.

Bridgeville police Chief Chad King said Radermacher worked as a police officer in the borough for 11 years before resigning as a sergeant in 1995. King said he never worked with him and did not know him personally.

“It’s shocking," King said. "But you don’t really know what people are getting into at home.”

Before his arrest, Radermacher was working as an investigator for an insurance company.