Tamaqua police officer allegedly recruited teenager on Snapchat

A Tamaqua police officer is in the Columbia County Jail after being charged with possession of child sexual abuse material and having sex with dogs.

The state Attorney General’s Office on Friday charged Christopher J. Cordes, 29, of Bloomsburg with child pornography and other offenses related to sexually explicit conversations, photos and videos he allegedly exchanged on Snapchat with several women, including some who claimed to be minors.

Cordes was arraigned Friday by District Judge Russell L. Lawton and jailed in Columbia County after failing to post $250,000 bail.

Tamaqua Police Chief Michael Hobbs posted on the police department’s Facebook page Friday that Cordes had been suspended indefinitely without pay. Hobbs said he only learned of the case Friday morning.

Cordes was charged by Special Agent Gabriel Fabian of the Attorney General’s Office.

According to the affidavit filed in district court, the Delaware County Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force received information about the posting of child sexual abuse material on Snapchat.

After investigating the defendant’s Snapchat account, Fabian found numerous text conversations the defendant had with other users in which he admitted to being sexually attracted to children and solicited inappropriate images and videos from users, including those who claimed to be under 18.

A user who said she was 25 years old offered to send the defendant explicit pictures of herself from 2013, when she was still in middle school.

During the same conversation, the woman also told the defendant that she had previously met a police officer “with very similar interests” who had infected her with a sexually transmitted disease.

Through further investigation, police discovered that the defendant had previously met the woman in 2021 and paid her $150 via CashApp, presumably for treatment of a sexually transmitted disease.

In another Snapchat conversation, the defendant solicited explicit material from a 13-year-old girl and told her about his interest in zoophilia.

Fabian said he later found several videos on the defendant’s account that showed the defendant having sex with dogs.

In addition, an underage girl sent the defendant several videos containing apparently self-produced pornographic material at his request, Fabian said.

In total, Cordes is accused of 18 criminal offenses, including child pornography, the distribution of explicitly sexual material and unauthorized contact with minors.

He is also accused of three minor offenses related to sexual intercourse with an animal.