The information technology specialist for the Valley View School District who was charged this week with sexting and molesting a teenage boy was also a board member of a railroad museum in Bethlehem, according to the state Attorney General’s Office.
William James Christian, 30, of 303 Coolidge St., Dupont, was arrested Tuesday on charges of unlawful contact with a minor and disseminating sexual materials to a minor for allegedly sharing pornography with a 15-year-old boy whom he also groped.
Attorney General Dave Sunday identified Christian as a board member for the Lehigh & Keystone Valley Model Railroad Museum at 705 Linden St., Bethlehem.
“This defendant used a common interest — enthusiasm for trains — to groom and prey on a young person,” Sunday said. “The defendant is charged with soliciting sexual messages from the victim, and assaulting them, over a period of many months. I am thankful for the collaboration between my office and law enforcement and community partners who helped stop this predatory behavior.”
Upon learning about the arrest, the museum immediately suspended Christian and has scheduled an emergency board meeting “to formalize the member’s permanent expulsion and lifetime ban from all club activities,” attorney Joseph F. Leeson III, of the Bethlehem law firm Leeson & Leeson, said in a statement on behalf of the museum.
“We wish to make it unequivocally clear that the alleged actions of this individual were undertaken entirely in a personal capacity and have no connection whatsoever to the activities, mission, or values of our club,” the statement said. “We were shocked and disheartened by the news, as it runs completely counter to the standards we uphold.”
The statement went on to say all museum members are required to undergo a state background check and that the museum is “committed to maintaining a safe, respectful, and law-abiding community for all of our members and the public.”
Christian was placed on administrative at Valley View as a result his arrest pending further school board action on his employment, according to the district.
The charges filed by state police say the victim thought of Christian as a friend who lived nearby and would take him to a “train club.” Christian began having sexually explicit conversations with the victim and groping the boy’s thighs and buttocks, according to the charges.
Troopers charged Christian with three counts of unlawful contact with a minor, 19 counts of disseminating sexual images to a minor, and one count each of indecent assault of a minor, corruption of a minor and endangering the welfare of a minor. He is being held at the Luzerne County Correctional Facility with bail at $125,000 and a preliminary hearing scheduled for May 13.