Two Schuylkill County men on Pennsylvania’s sex offender registry are charged with failing to report social media accounts to State Police as required under Megan’s Law, and one of them is wanted.
State Police have obtained an arrest warrant for Jason Joy, 36, of Cass Township, who police say walked out of the Frackville barracks before finishing an update to his registration. Richard Simpson, 48, of Porter Township, is free on bail.
Joy is charged with one felony count of failing to provide accurate registration information. Simpson faces two felony counts of failing to provide accurate registration information and one felony count of failing to verify his address or be photographed.
Joy is a Tier 1 offender because of a 2015 conviction for sexual abuse of children, according to State Police. He is required to report changes to his address, employment, internet identifiers, and other information within three business days.
On July 9, investigators at State Police-Frackville received a tip from the State Police Megan’s Law Unit that Joy had a Facebook account under the name “Jason Michael” that he never disclosed. A check of the state’s sex offender registry showed Joy had reported two internet identifiers: an email address and a Facebook account under the name Jason Joy.
Joy came to the barracks around 9 a.m. Nov. 4 to update his vehicle information. He told a trooper the 2015 Ford F-150 listed on his registration was no longer valid and that he bought a new vehicle but didn’t have the paperwork with him.
When a trooper asked whether he had any other internet identifiers, including Facebook, Instagram, or TikTok accounts, Joy said he did not, police say.
The trooper then asked Joy to talk, and around 9:30 a.m. Joy sat for a recorded interview that the trooper told him was voluntary.
Joy told police the information he gave was correct, that he didn’t have another Facebook account, and that his account was under the name Jason Joy, according to police. When a trooper showed him a screenshot of the account from the tip, Joy said it was his and that he didn’t know why his last name didn’t appear on it.
Joy said he has had the account since 2014 or 2015 and pulled it up on his phone. The trooper found activity on it going back to December 2020. The account was disabled during the interview, police say.
Asked about other accounts, Joy told the trooper he also had Snapchat and TikTok accounts he had not disclosed and showed both on his phone. The Snapchat account was created in 2014. Joy said he didn’t know when he made the TikTok account.
When asked whether he had an Instagram account, Joy began searching his phone for the app, and the trooper saw Instagram on it. Before opening it, Joy said he wanted to talk to a lawyer, according to police.
Troopers seized Joy’s phone as evidence and walked him to the barracks lobby, where he was told to stay and complete a Megan’s Law update for the newly discovered accounts. He left before finishing it, police say.
Simpson’s registered as a Tier 2 offender in 2019 after being convicted of unlawful contact or communication with a minor in connection with a January 2018 incident, according to police. He is required to list every online identifier he uses when he registers and at each verification after that.
A trooper began looking into whether Simpson was following his registration requirements on Oct. 20. The registry listed his current employer as a Lebanon hauling business where he had worked since January 2022.
The owner of that business told the trooper Simpson’s employment there ended Aug. 31, police say. As of Oct. 31, Simpson had not updated his employment information, well past the three days Megan’s Law allows.
The owner also told the trooper about a public TikTok account allegedly run by Simpson. Investigators tied the account to Simpson and found it had been posting since April 2024, according to police.
Simpson last verified his information April 19 at the State Police barracks in Lykens, where he listed a single internet identifier, an email address. He did not provide any others, including the TikTok account, at that verification or in any update since, police say.
The Megan’s Law Unit sent Simpson a letter Oct. 5 notifying him of a required verification due by Oct. 22. On Oct. 30, the unit changed his status to noncompliant. His registration still listed him as working for the hauling business and left out the TikTok account, according to police.
Simpson was arraigned Nov. 6 and released from custody after posting $35,000 bail.
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