A Luzerne County man is facing serious charges, including sexual assault of a child. William James Christian Jr., who sat on the board of the Lehigh & Keystone Valley Model Railroad Museum, was arrested this past Tuesday after an investigation revealed he had allegedly exchanged thousands of sexually explicit messages with a minor on Facebook. As reported by the Attorney General's Office, Christian has been hit with multiple charges ranging from unlawful contact with a minor, indecent assault, to disseminating explicit sexual material to a minor.
During Christian's arraignment on Tuesday, his bail was set at $125,000, and specific bail conditions were imposed, including no internet access, he must have no unsupervised contact with minors, and he must sever ties with the model railroad museum club where he once served. Attorney General Dave Sunday condemned the actions, claiming Christian exploited a shared interest in trains to "groom and prey on a young person." The offenses spanned a period from 2023 to 2024, where messages with the 15-year-old victim initially focused on model trains before devolving into sexual predation, this painstakingly crafted facade of innocence meticulously being stripped away as his true intentions surfaced, according to the Attorney General's Office.
The physical assaults are reported to have mostly occurred in transit to and from model train-related events. Luzerne County District Attorney Sam Sanguedolce highlighted the "dynamic collaborative efforts of law enforcement agencies" in the legal proceedings and offered gratitude to the Attorney General's Office for their role in the arrest, as gathered from their remarks in the official statement. Christian's preliminary hearing is calendared for May 13, pending legal adjudication, where he will respond to the current allegations.
