AG presents 2 hours of phone recordings in hearing against Cranberry Township man accused of child sex acts
CRANBERRY TWP — An FBI special agent spoke to a township man for just over a week while posing as a father soliciting his 11-year-old stepson for sex, according to testimony presented at a Friday, July 17, preliminary hearing.
Justin Lawrence Pavetto, 37, sat in the courtroom as Pennsylvania Deputy Attorney General Angela Raver played portions of two hours of phone conversations between Pavetto and FBI Detective Christopher Smith, who was posing as an 11-year-old boy’s father.
District Judge Kevin Flaherty held all nine felony charges against Pavetto for court. He is charged with two felony counts of unlawful contact with minors; one felony count of sexual abuse of a minor through communication; one felony count each of criminal attempt to rape of a child and criminal attempt of involuntary deviate sexual intercourse with a child and an associated felony criminal solicitation charge for each; and one felony count each of criminal solicitation of child sexual abuse material on a computer and criminal use of a communication facility related to the recordings and other actions between April 23 and May 1.
The prosecution said Pavetto believed he was talking to a father with a child, but no children were involved in the investigation.
Smith, who worked for the FBI’s child pornography task force during the investigation, said Pavetto reached out April 23 to his account on Sniffies, a location-based website for men to find sexual encounters with other men. Smith was posing on the website as a father with an 11-year-old stepson who was in Pittsburgh for the 2026 NFL Draft.
The two began speaking on Sniffies, then transitioned to WhatsApp, a communication app with stronger encryption. Smith testified Pavetto initiated the majority of the conversations, including text messages, 30 successful phone calls and two video calls, until his arrest May 1.
During their week of communication, Smith said Pavetto also encouraged him to perform sexual acts on the boy and asked if he could perform sexual acts on Smith’s stepson. The two planned to meet up at McDonald’s. However, when the meeting fell through, Pavetto gave Smith his address, he said.
Smith said he gave Pavetto an “out” and brought up his made-up stepson’s age multiple times throughout their interactions and said only the child was being offered for sexual acts, not him. But Pavetto pushed to continue the conversation and to see the child as time went on.
Smith said he had no evidence Pavetto was seeking the child during their initial contact instead of Smith when questioned by defense attorney Michael Zunder.
Smith also didn’t recall if Pavetto had mentioned any sexual preferences involving minors before Smith offered the boy and didn’t know if Pavetto had been on the website or sought sexual contact with a child before.
He said Pavetto was never shown a child during the investigation.
Duane Tabak, a special agent with the attorney general’s office, testified he wrote search warrants, filed charges and detained Pavetto the night of May 1. He said Pavetto admitted to the acts when questioned and even wrote an apology letter to the child.
Tabak also said no child sexual abuse images were found on any of Pavetto’s searched devices when asked by Zunder. He said Pavetto told him he would not have gone through with the child sexual abuse acts.
Pavetto’s formal arraignment is scheduled for 1 p.m. Sept. 1 in Butler County Common Pleas Courtroom 2.
