Current Conditions
28°F - SNOW
(114) (88) (48) (43) (9) (9) (8) (5) (3) (2) (2) (2)
Greg Nies, 53, was charged in May with having sexual contact with a teen-age girl.
This week, in a second round of charges, the Lititz man was charged with 22 counts of child pornography, six counts of unlawful contact with a minor and six counts of corruption of minors.
All of the charges arose from an investigation that began in April, when a teenager reported to police that she had been sent inappropriate Internet messages from a person posing as an 18-year-old woman.
That initial contact eventually led police to Nies, his computer containing child pornography and the teenage girl he allegedly had sexually assaulted.
The teen who first contacted police called them because she "felt there was something strange about this 18-year-old girl she was communicating with," said Detective John Schofield of the Lititz police.
The "18-year-old girl" identified herself online as Julie Miller, using the screen name "juls18bi," according to Nies' most recent arrest warrant affidavit.
The teen told police she had numerous online conversations with Julie Miller over an 18-month period, through Internet provider AOL's Instant Messenger service.
During some of those conversations, Julie Miller asked the teen to send naked photos of herself, asked her what sexual acts she had engaged in and spoke about masturbation techniques, according to the affidavit.
After a time, the teen suspected that Julie Miller actually was a man, the affidavit said.
Police traced Julie Miller's computer account and found that it was registered to Nies.
Police also discovered that Julie Miller's instant messaging account was logged onto more than 500 times from Feb. 18 to April 23. The log-on times were in the early morning through mid-afternoon and into the late hours of the night.
While police were looking into these contacts, another teen came forward, who was in communication with the initial teen who contacted police.
The second girl told police that Nies had inappropriate physical contact with her. The girl said she knew Nies through their church and their families. The contact happened when the girl stayed at the Nies' home when her family was out of town.
The girl told police that Nies touched, hugged and kissed her, starting when she was 13 years old.
She said the contact happened eight times and included Nies touching her private areas, telling her that "this is what dads do."
That contact was what prompted the first round of charges against Nies. Those charges included aggravated indecent assault, indecent assault, corruption of minors and unlawful contact with a minor.
At that time, police knew that Nies had the computer contact with several juveniles in the Lititz area and had posed as an 18-year-old girl, police said.
Nies was working for Derck & Edson Associates in Lititz at the time and had access to a personal computer owned by the company during working hours.
Police seized that work computer as well as a laptop and a personal computer from Nies' home.
On the work computer, a forensic investigator found 22 images of child pornography.
That led to the most recent round of charges against Nies, filed Thursday.
In an interview with police in May, Nies admitted to posing as the 18-year-old girl, the affidavit said. He also admitted to "engaging in sexually explicit conversations with these minors."
And Nies "admitted to possessing numerous child pornographic images/photos on his computer and indicated he has been viewing them for approximately 15 years."
Nies surrendered to District Judge Nancy Hamill on the most recent charges. Already on $150,000 bail from the first round of charges, he was released on $50,000 unsecured bail on the most recent charges.
The investigation against Nies ended his third attempt at running for mayor of Lititz. A former borough council member, he also was a church youth group leader and served as the town Santa Claus for a number of years.
