A Colorado man who authorities said admitted to having sexually-explicit communication with at least 13 young girls is facing child pornography charges in Chattanooga.
Prosecutors said two of the girls, ages 12 and 11, live in Cleveland, Tn.
Phillip Passopulo was arraigned on Wednesday before Federal Magistrate Bill Carter. He was ordered to be jailed until his case is resolved.
Last Aug. 14, a Cleveland, Tn., woman told the Bradley County Sheriff's Office that her 12-year-old daughter was contacted by an individual with the Facebook name of "Max.Aiken.56" stating he was 14 years old, lived in Colorado and Virginia and wanted to meet her in Cleveland, Tn.
Two days later, another Cleveland woman came forward and said her 11-year-old daughter became friends with "Max Aiken" on Facebook. She said she found inappropriate messages about having sex.
She said "Aiken" wanted to meet her daughter at the mall in Cleveland. The mother said she posed as her daughter and said she wanted to talk with "Aiken" over the phone. She said when he called he "sounded like a grown man and not a 14-year-old boy." Lisa M. confronted "Aiken" on the phone to which he replied he could not be caught
Detective Jeremy Allman with BCSO assumed the Facebook identity of the 11-year-old girl and had several online conversations with "Aiken" on Facebook. "Aiken" said he wanted to travel to Tennessee and meet the young girl and kiss her. He later spoke of wanting to have sex with the girl and asked her to send him explicit photos.
Prosecutors said "Aiken" sent the girl an explicit photo of a nude young girl and he sent a photo of his private area.
On Nov. 6, a female detective with BCSO, pretending to be one of the girls, made a recorded telephone call to "Aiken." He again said he wanted to come to Cleveland to meet her.
Authorities said they did various Internet search and were able to find that "Aiken" was Phillip Neal Passopulo, who was living with a woman and her young daughter at a residence at Montrose, Colo.
Authorities on March 3 carried out a search at the residence of Passopulo and seized some computers that are being analyzed.
They said Passopulo then made admissions about his contact with the young girls.