Bacliff man accused of posing as reality star to lure young girls
BACLIFF, TX (KTRK) -- Police say a Bacliff man posed as a popular teenage celebrity online, attempting to get underage girls to send him nude pictures of themselves.
Steven Jones, 35, was arrested at the trailer where he lives with his mother on Boulevard Street Tuesday.
Investigators Jones had been chatting on Facebook with at least a dozen girls across the country -- girls aged 10-16. Prosecutors tell Eyewitness News Jones posed as Maddie Ziegler, creating fake Facebook profiles of the young celebrity who got her start on the show "Dance Moms" and is now better known for her appearance in a music video for Sia and for her role as a judge on "So You Think You Can Dance."
"He would befriend underage girls, engage in communications with them through Facebook. Sometimes the communications became intimate," said Galveston County Assistant District Attorney Adam Poole.
Court documents show Jones asked one girl to show him nude pictures. Police say that child's parents alerted them. Investigators tracked the IP address from the bogus page to a trailer park where they arrested Jones.
"He needs to be out of this park, away from Bacliff. That's the way I feel with it," said neighbor James Hooper.
Neighbors say this allegation confirms earlier suspicious they had after seeing the way he would interact with some of the young girls living here.
"Just told him to leave the kids alone," Hooper recalled. "No more swimming with the children. Run with people your own age."
Jones returned home while our camera was rolling. We asked him to tell us what happened.
"I haven't done anything wrong," Jones said.
His mother, Debra Campbell, rushed him inside as we attempted to find out his version of events.
She said, "I don't know what happened. No charges have been filed. He has not been arrested."
Authorities say Jones had some medical episode during the process of being arrested. He was taken to the hospital and not booked at jail. They expect him to be re-arrested and charged.
