32-year-old accused of sending texts to girl
A Butler man is accused of sending inappropriate text messages to a 12-year-old girl.
Butler police charged Michael R. Sparks, 32, Wednesday with a first-degree misdemeanor count of corruption of minors stemming from alleged sexually explicit texts in January.
The Butler County Children and Youth Services agency notified police Jan. 17 of the suspected unlawful communication, according to investigators.
On Jan. 21, the child's mother provided police with printouts from her daughter's phone of the inappropriate text conversation Sparks allegedly had with the child. She later turned over the girl's phone to police.
A forensic interview of the girl was conducted Jan. 24 by the county's Child Advocacy Center, police said. She told the interviewer that Sparks had texted her inappropriate messages on several occasions when her mother was not home.
She also said that Sparks told her not to tell her mother, investigators said.
By then, Sparks was already in the Butler County Prison on an unrelated probation violation. He was booked into the prison Jan. 14.
Police said they subsequently obtained search warrants to seize his phone and examine it as part of their investigation. The examination uncovered the same inappropriate conversation that was on the girl's phone, police said.
On Wednesday, District Judge William Fullerton arraigned Sparks on the criminal charge. He was given a nonmonetary bond in the case with the release conditions that he be placed on pretrial supervision and that he have no contact with the victim.
Sparks' preliminary hearing is Feb. 24. Online court records did not list an attorney for him.
