A Centre County journalist accused of having sexual communications with an FBI agent he believed was a teenager is facing new charges.
Christopher Z. Morelli, 54, of Pleasant Gap, is now accused of providing alcohol and sending sexual messages to a 14-year-old girl who was on a Bellefonte area youth soccer team he coached in 2011.
A woman came forward with the allegations on Tuesday after reading reports about Morelli’s initial arrest in December, according to an affidavit of probable cause filed by Spring Township police.
Morelli, who was 43 at the time, provided the girl and her friend with alcohol while they went swimming at his house in September 2011 when no one else was home, police wrote. The following month, he sent her messages through Facebook Messenger first asking about her sexual experience, then discussing her breasts and describing sexual acts he would do with her, according to the affidavit.
During the conversation he confirmed the girl’s age, according to message transcripts. The girl stopped communicating with him “after the conversations become even more inappropriate,” police wrote.
He allegedly attempted to contact the girl multiple times over the ensuing months, but she did not respond.
Morelli was arrested on Friday morning and is charged with felony counts of criminal solicitation of statutory sexual assault and corruption of minors.
He was denied bail by District Judge Gregory Koehle and is detained at the Centre County Correctional Facility. A preliminary hearing on the new charges is scheduled for Jan. 17.
Morelli, a longtime area journalist who most recently had been editor of the Centre County Gazette, had been out on $250,000 bail after he was was charged in December with sending sexual messages to and attempting to arrange meetings with an agent from the FBI Pittsburgh Violent Crimes Against Children Task Force who was posing as a 14-year-old girl.
He began communicating with the agent in July 2022 through private messages on a social media application, according to an affidavit of probable cause. Over the course of about 18 months, Morelli allegedly made multiple attempts to meet with the “teen” for sexual activity, engaged in explicit conversations and attempted to solicit sexual images.
Morelli was charged on Dec. 19 with one felony count each of unlawful contact with a minor – sexual offenses and criminal use of a communication facility. A preliminary hearing on those charges is currently scheduled for Jan. 10.
Police are continuing to investigate. Anyone with information about Morelli is asked to contact Spring Township Det. Lukas Nelson at 814-355-5134, District Attorney Bernie Cantorna said.
