On July 2, a New Jersey man was arrested after allegedly travelling to Bucks County under the belief that he was meeting a 13-year-old trafficking victim for commercial sex. Christoper Martin Reynolds, 35, is charged with nine felony counts, including attempted trafficking in individuals, attempted commercial sex with a minor, attempted statutory sexual assault, attempted indecent assault, attempted corruption of minors, and unlawful contact with a minor. Reynolds is being held on $5,000,000 bail and remains incarcerated while he awaits his preliminary hearing, which is scheduled for August 12.
On June 30, a Montgomery County detective went undercover on a website that is commonly used for human trafficking pretending to be the mother of a 13-year-old girl and offering the girl for commercial sex. Reynolds allegedly contacted the detective and agreed to pay $300 and a bottle of Mountain Dew soda in exchange for sex with the child. Reynolds then travelled to the prearranged meetup spot, where he was arrested by a joint task force targeting commercial sexual exploitation. According to the Bucks County District Attorney’s Office, Reynolds had the predetermined payment, including the bottle of soda, on his person when he was arrested.
This investigative approach is consistent with proactive investigative strategies commonly used in online child exploitation cases to identify and apprehend individuals seeking to engage in commercial sex with minors. Bensalem Township Police Director of Public Safety William McVey stated, “The Bensalem Township Police Department is proud to have partnered in this investigation and remains committed to working alongside our law enforcement partners to identify, apprehend, and prosecute those who seek to exploit children.”
Under Pennsylvania law, trafficking in individuals includes recruiting, enticing, soliciting, or obtaining a person for the purpose of engaging in a commercial sex act. When the intended victim is a minor, prosecutors are not required to establish force, fraud, or coercion. Because the law recognizes that minors cannot legally consent to commercial sexual activity, the act of offering payment in exchange for sexual access to a minor satisfies the statutory framework.
Consistent with proactive investigations targeting online commercial sexual exploitation of minors, this case involves attempt liability rather than a completed trafficking offense. Under Pennsylvania’s attempt statute, criminal liability attaches when an individual takes a substantial step toward the commission of a crime with the intent to complete it. Here, Reynolds’ alleged conduct—communicating with someone believed to be a minor, negotiating payment, and traveling to the meeting location with the predetermined payment—demonstrates clear intent to act beyond mere preparation.
The facts of this case illustrate how trafficking statutes can be utilized not only to punish completed acts, but also to intervene at earlier stages. By criminalizing attempts, the law enables law enforcement to disrupt harmful conduct before a minor is directly victimized. This preventative function is especially critical in cases involving online communications, where offenders may seek to normalize transactional sexual relationships with minors before escalating to physical encounters.
This case reflects a growing reliance on proactive investigative techniques, including undercover operations, to combat sex trafficking of minors. These methods allow law enforcement to identify and prosecute the sex buyers who create demand for sexual access to minors, an essential component in addressing trafficking at its source. The CSE Institute emphasizes the importance of demand-side enforcement. Individuals who seek to purchase sexual access to minors—whether or not the act is ultimately completed—fuel a market that places vulnerable individuals at risk. Appropriate enforcement of trafficking and attempt statutes alongside continued vigilance and technological savviness remain essential for the prevention of the commercial sexual exploitation of children.
The CSE Institute commends the joint efforts of the Bucks County and Montgomery County District Attorney’s offices and detectives, as well as participating police departments, for their collaborative and proactive approach in this investigation. Early intervention not only protects potential victims but also ensures that attempts to sexually exploit children are rightfully treated with the same gravity and care as completed offenses.
The CSE Institute will continue to provide updates on this matter.
All views expressed therein are personal to the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Villanova University Charles Widger School of Law or of Villanova University.