CHICORA — A district judge dropped charges Tuesday, April 15, against a Saxonburg man accused of sending threatening messages to a Butler man, who worked to get his Facebook page demonetized.

Four misdemeanor charges were dropped against Justin Matthew Castilyn, 45, founder of the Butler News page on Facebook, who the prosecution alleged sent threatening messages to Jared Rogerson after he requested Facebook demonetize Castilyn’s Facebook page. The demonetization meant Castilyn could no longer profit from the page.

“It was somebody that just doesn’t like me,” Castilyn told the Butler Eagle after the hearing before District Judge Lewis Stoughton.

The messages, sent after the page was demonetized, claimed Castilyn would kill Rogerson by luring him out of a home he was remodeling, according to assistant district attorney Zoe Kecskemethy. The messages came from a Facebook page named Justin Cast, which Castilyn said is not his.

Kecskemethy presented screenshots of the messages, and said the threats were accompanied by a photo of a gun, which Rogerson later discovered was pulled from the app Reddit.

The messages included a screenshot of a Facebook notification the Butler News page allegedly received, saying it had been demonetized. Rogerson said only Castilyn, the page's owner, would have access to that notification and Castilyn blames him for getting the page demonetized.

Defense attorney Richard Bosco said additional steps were not taken to verify the message’s source, and affirmed Rogerson did not know for sure only the Butler News page owner would have access to the notification.

Rogerson testified Castilyn had previously made a Facebook post about Rogerson’s parents. He said he contacted Facebook about Castilyn’s page and worked to get the page demonetized.

Bosco argued Tiffany Barton, the woman who claimed over Facebook Messenger that Castilyn was threatening to kill Rogerson, was the only element tying Castilyn to the messages.

Rogerson testified that he awoke Oct. 18 to messages and missed calls about the threats from Barton, who was not present to testify. Kecskemethy said Barton moved out of state, and subpoenas were sent but not deliverable.

Castilyn had been charged with one misdemeanor count each of terroristic threats, simple assault, harassment and disorderly conduct.