Accused in kid-porn case to stay jailed

A MONTGOMERY County man who was arrested Tuesday on federal child-porn charges and attempting to entice somebody he thought was a 13-year-old girl in Texas to have sex with him was ordered yesterday to remain in custody.

Federal prosecutors filed court papers yesterday contending that James A. Morgan, 45, who was arrested at his mother's home in Hatfield Township, was both a flight risk and a danger to the community. He faces a mandatory minimum 10 years' imprisonment if convicted of all offenses.

The court filing yesterday also detailed new allegations of sexual misconduct unrelated to the federal charges.

Morgan is accused of sexually abusing, from 2001 through 2003, the daughter of a woman he had met online. The sexual abuse allegedly occurred from the time the girl was nine years old until she was about 12, court papers said.

Authorities said that state charges related to that case could soon be filed against Morgan in Northampton County. The victim has been interviewed by investigators, court papers said.

Morgan also is involved in a relationship with another woman whom he met online who has young children, the new court filing said.

Federal prosecutors also said that a preliminary review of Morgan's Yahoo account revealed about 5,000 additional chats, most of which involved sexual conversations with and about minors, the court documents stated.

Investigators said that Morgan, who was a forklift operator at Costco in Montgomeryville, made contact in a Yahoo chat room on Sept. 14 with the person whom he thought was a 13-year-old girl but who was really an undercover officer with a Texas sheriff's office.

Morgan identified himself as a dad from Pennsylvania, then turned a webcam on himself and transmitted a live video of himself masturbating for 30 minutes, an FBI arrest affidavit said.

He then asked for the girl's cellphone number and said that he would travel to Texas to see her, the affidavit said.

Morgan allegedly transmitted 36 images and seven videos to the undercover officer, about 15 of which were said to be child porn, and engaged in nine additional conversations, the affidavit said.

Prosecutors said that after the FBI searched his mother's home Monday, Morgan admitted that he chatted with the officer he thought was a 13-year-old girl, used his webcam for the live sexual videos and transmitted images of child porn to the officer.