A plea bargain offer is on the table for a 55-year-old Lyndora man accused of forcing a woman to have sex with a 12-year-old boy.

The proposal would send Chester H. Thompson to prison for 15 to 30 years.

Assistant District Attorney Ben Simon advised Butler County Judge Timothy McCune of the offer at a status conference Tuesday.

“At this point,” Simon told the judge, “I think this is as far as I'm willing to go with an offer. But I'm not completely closing the door to a counterproposal.”

It was the first offer from prosecutors in the case.

Thompson is charged with solicitation to commit the crimes of rape of a child and statutory sexual assault; photographing or videotaping a child engaged in sexual acts; and disseminating and possessing child pornography, all felonies.

He also is charged with three misdemeanors — corruption of minors, child endangerment and simple assault. He is free on $50,00 unsecured bail.

Thompson's attorney, public defender Charles Nedz, said he would discuss the proposal with his client in the “next couple weeks.”

Following the court proceedings, Nedz said he has neither accepted nor rejected the offer.

“I want to see how Mr. Thompson wants to proceed,” he said, “before I make a decision.”

Neither he nor Simon would comment on the allegations in the case.

Butler Township police in March charged Thompson following an investigation that began with a November 2017 tip through the ChildLine abuse hot line.

According to information provided to the hot line, Thompson allegedly had child pornography on his cell phone.

Charging documents provided by authorities allege Thompson had sexually explicit photos of a then-nearly 30-year-old woman and a 12-year-old boy.

The same day that investigators received information from the child abuse hot line, Thompson appeared at the police station for an interview.

Police said he claimed that several days earlier he had seen the woman and boy engaged in sex at an apartment in Lyndora.

According to the police affidavit, Thompson admitted taking at least one photo of the suspected sex act. The defendant, the document said, admitted that he sent one photo to a friend.

A police investigator looked at Thompson's cell phone and found three photos appearing to show a woman and boy “engaged in sexual intercourse,” investigators said.

Thompson voluntarily surrendered the phone to police, who sent it to state police forensic specialists for analysis.

However, according to police Detective Max Wittlinger, within 24 hours of the interview, Thompson moved to Wisconsin to apparently be with family living there.

He eventually turned himself in and was arraigned on charges May 14.

Investigators, meanwhile, conducted a forensic interview of the boy, who claimed Thompson forced him to have sex with the woman.

The boy alleged that Thompson took photos of the sex acts. He also told investigators that Thompson forced him to drink alcoholic beverages.

Police interviewed the woman in November 2017. She recounted some details about the incident, which allegedly occurred in August or early September 2017. She also accused Thompson of drugging her.

Wittlinger said the woman has not been charged and police believe that she and the boy are both victims.