UNION COUNTY, New Jersey – A Grand Rapids woman has been charged with several counts of engaging in an inappropriate relationship with a New Jersey teenager for over a year.
Jessica Carlton, 44, is charged with two counts of Attempting to Lure or Entice a Child, 2nd degree, and 12 counts of Endangering the Welfare of a Child, 3rd degree, in New Jersey.
The Union County Prosecutor’s Office Special Victims Unit began investigating Carlton in March when they were contacted by a municipal police department. In the investigation, they learned that Carlton allegedly first contacted the victim in May of 2013 via Xbox Live, when he was 11.
While playing video games together online, they allegedly developed a relationship that grew to involve sexually explicit text messages and phone conversations. According to investigators, they also started exchanged explicit photographs. In December 2014, Carlton allegedly visited the boy in New Jersey and brought him gifts.
Carlton was arrested April 9 in Michigan and was just extradited to New Jersey and charged. She was jailed on a $225,000 bail and ordered to not have any contact with the victim.
