A karate instructor in Evans City is facing 27 felony counts after Pennsylvania State Police say he exchanged more than 1,200 text messages with a 14-year-old student, including sexual photos and messages, over several months this year. Sean Cohen, 31, taught at Shorin Ryu Karate Do International, and investigators say the teenager told him directly that his messages made her uncomfortable.
According to CBS Pittsburgh, the investigation began after Pennsylvania State Police received a ChildLine report about Cohen. The texting relationship with the girl reportedly began when she was 14 and continued from March until earlier this month, according to the same outlet. Cohen is also accused of acting inappropriately toward the teenager inside the dojo itself, conduct the station's report says she separately described as weird.
Court documents cited by CBS Pittsburgh quote the teenager telling Cohen she was uncomfortable with his messages, and describing the exchanges in blunt terms. “It's really creepy to be honest,” she reportedly said, with the outlet noting she also characterized his sexual text messages as weird.
Felony Counts Tied to Volume of Messages
Cohen now faces 27 counts of disseminating explicit sexual material to a minor, along with charges of corruption of minors, unlawful contact with a minor, and criminal use of a communication facility, per the station's report. The sheer volume of charges stems from how Pennsylvania law treats electronic communication: under 18 Pa. C.S. § 7512, using a smartphone or similar device to commit or facilitate a felony is itself a third-degree felony, and each individual transmission can be charged as a separate count, according to FindLaw.
The corruption of minors charge carries its own weight. Under Pennsylvania Crimes Code Section 6301(a)(1)(ii), corruption of minors committed as a course of conduct linked to sexual offenses is graded as a third-degree felony punishable by up to seven years in prison, and it carries a 15-year sex offender registration requirement under SORNA, according to the Zuckerman Law Firm. Separately, Pennsylvania's Unlawful Contact with a Minor statute requires prosecutors to prove a person intentionally communicated with a minor to facilitate a sexual or explicit material offense, and a conviction under that law also triggers mandatory registration, per Goldstein Mehta LLC.
A Small Borough Dojo, a Trusted Instructor
Shorin Ryu Karate Do International operates on East Main Street in Evans City, a small Butler County borough about 28 miles north of downtown Pittsburgh with a 2020 census population of 1,737 residents, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. The studio initially opened at 115 West Main Street before relocating to its current East Main Street address, according to a Facebook post describing the business. It teaches traditional Okinawan karate along with youth and adult classes, kickboxing, and self-defense instruction, per the same post.
Cohen, who is a U.S. Marine Corps veteran and a second-degree black belt, had studied karate for 15 years before launching the studio, according to the Facebook post. The case was referred for investigation after it moved through Pennsylvania's ChildLine system, a 24-hour hotline under the Department of Human Services that receives suspected child abuse reports and refers them to investigating agencies and, when appropriate, local law enforcement, per the Pennsylvania Department of Human Services. Pennsylvania State Police investigated the case.
ChildLine Reports in 2024
ChildLine received 41,070 suspected child abuse reports statewide in 2024, according to the Department of Human Services.
It remains unclear whether Cohen has entered a plea or whether bail has been set as the case proceeds through Butler County's court system.
