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Butler man accused of blackmailing girls via Snapchat

A Butler man is accused of blackmailing juvenile females for sexually explicit pictures over the messaging app Snapchat, according to charges filed Friday.

District Judge Joseph Nash arraigned Devin S. Cupps, 19, on felony charges including five counts of corruption of minors, five counts of child pornography, five counts of unlawful contact with minors and five counts of distribution of sexual material.

Cupps is being held in Butler County Prison on $100,000 bail.

State police said they were contacted March 2 by the state Department of Human Services abuse hotline — “ChildLine” — regarding an adult male asking for sexually explicit images via Snapchat.

According to charging documents, three girls connected with Cupps on the app using his username devon_cupps2021. Cupps allegedly met the children through the Jesus Alive and Living youth ministry program at All Saints Parish in Butler.

According to the parish’s website, Jesus Alive and Living sees middle and high school students meet regularly at St. Conrad Catholic Church in Meridian.

Police said one girl sent naked pictures of herself directly to Cupps’ account, and was then asked by the username k_cooper1967 to send more.

“She was added by another account ... which threatened to put her and her friends naked pictures online if she did not send more naked pictures to them,” said the investigating officer in a report.

According to police, other girls reported being blackmailed by the k_cooper1967 account and an account named judahh8733 for naked pictures, explicit videos and photos of genitalia.

After obtaining a search warrant, police said the devon_cupps2021 account and k_cooper1967 account were stamped with the same IP address, which was linked to Cupps’ home.

“Conversations were observed where the k_cooper1967 account was blackmailing the above juveniles among other unknown female accounts for intimate images and videos,” said the investigating officer.

On multiple occasions, Cupps’ account sent messages to the juveniles telling them to do what the k_cooper1967 account said, according to police documents.

Police said Cupps denied having child pornography on his phone during an interview at the Butler Troop D barracks May 2, but he later called the investigating officer to admit to having access to some previously. Cupps claimed all the photos had been deleted.

A search warrant of Cupps cell phone confirmed “numerous intimate images of known and unknown females saved on the device,” some of which matched those found on the Snapchat accounts, police said.

Cupps is scheduled to appear June 29 for a preliminary hearing before Nash.

The Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh could not be reached on Saturday for a comment.

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