Mississippi Man Accused of Sexting Hillsborough Girl

A Mississippi man was arrested last week on charges of endangering a minor and sexual assault after he sexted videos and photos to a 14-year-old Hillsborough girl, Somerset County Prosecutor Geoffrey Soriano announced Monday. 

Thomas Pumphrey, 55, of Henando, Miss., was taken into custody in Mississippi Aug. 14 and was charged with second-degree attempted sexual assault, third-degree endangering the welfare of a child and fourth-degree criminal sexual contact.

The detectives were dispatched to continue an investigation launched after the girl's parents told Hillsborough police their daughter had received messages from Pumphrey—who was claiming to be a 19-year-old male in Alabama—beginning in February.

According to the probable cause affidavit filed on Friday, Pumphrey had sent videos of himself masturbating and other pornographic images, and encouraged her to respond with the same.

Soriano said Hillsborough detectives identified Pumphrey as the person sending the messages and also uncovered that he was actually a 55-year-old man living in Mississippi. Last week, the Somerset county detectives, working with officers from the DeSoto County Sheriff’s Department, took Pumphrey into custody.

After his arrest, he waived extradition back to New Jersey and is now being held in the Somerset County Jail, with bail set by the Honorable Paul W. Armstrong, J.S.C., at $75,000. As a condition of his bail, the defendant is not to have contact with the victim should he post bail.