Police arrested a Berwick man in Tobyhanna on Thursday for trying to entice a 13-year-old to skip school, smoke marijuana and begin a sexual relationship.
Brian Orlowski, 43, spent several months sending text messages and Facebook messages grooming the 13-year-old girl for a sexual relationship, going as far as telling the child he would leave his adult girlfriend for her.
Based on the messages, Pocono Mountain Regional Police believe the teen had an indication sex was planned for their final meeting at the Blanche D. Price Park on Thursday. Mr. Orlowski was arrested at the park Thursday.
The girl's mother found what she believed to be inappropriate messages on her daughter's Facebook page with Mr. Orlowski and contacted police. On May 16, Detective John Bohrman interviewed them both and learned Mr. Orlowski had been sending her messages to "chill" in the woods or in the car and smoke marijuana. Later, he requested pictures of her in a bikini.
During the text message conversations, the word "sex" was never used, though references to sex made her uncomfortable, police said.
Police arrested Mr. Orlowski in Scranton in May 2011 on child pornography charges, which Lackawanna County Judge Vito P. Geroulo dismissed nearly a year later. The circumstances of that dismissal were not clear.
Until Thursday, Mr. Orlowski was out on bail on charges he sold 10 bags of heroin on the 600 block of North Washington Avenue on Jan. 11.
Police charged Mr. Orlowski with unlawful contact with a minor, corruption of minors, interference with the custody of children, luring a child into a motor vehicle and criminal use of a communication facility.
He is in the Monroe County Correctional Facility in lieu of $150,000 bail. A preliminary hearing is scheduled for June 13.
Contact the writer: jkohut@timesshamrock.com, @jkohutTT on Twitter