WORCESTER — A law enforcement officer from Texas has been charged in federal court with cyberstalking a minor female living in Worcester County.

Pasquale T. "Gino" Salas, 25, a deputy sheriff with the Matagorda County Sheriff’s Office, was arrested Wednesday morning in Bay City, Texas. He will appear in federal court in the Southern District of Texas Thursday and will appear in federal court in Worcester at a later date, according to the office of U.S. Attorney Andrew E. Lelling.

According to the charging document, Mr. Salas met the girl through an online video game website in 2014, when she was 12. Salas and the girl communicated on a private chat room and then moved those communications to various other platforms, including text messaging, Skype and Snapchat. Salas repeatedly solicited the girl to transmit sexually explicit images and videos of herself.

The charges allege that beginning as early as 2016, Mr. Salas intimidated the victim into maintaining contact with him and sending additional sexually explicit material by threatening that he would publish the minor’s sexually explicit images and videos to her family and her friends. As recently as May, when the victim tried to terminate contact with Salas, he repeatedly sent threatening communications to her, using web-based applications to disguise the source of the communications, the U.S. attorney's office said.

According to federal court records, under constant threat of making the images public, Mr. Salas obtained the girl's passwords for various social media platforms. He told her he was a law enforcement officer and said he had people watching her home. At the same time he sent the girl gifts and gave her access to his Amazon Prime account, according to court records.

If convicted, Mr. Salas faces up to five years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000.

The U.S. attorney's office for the Southern District of Texas, the Federal Bureau of Investigation Houston field office, the Matagorda County Sheriff’s Office, and the Worcester Police Department assisted with the case. Assistant U.S. Attorney Kristen Noto from Mr. Lelling’s Worcester office is prosecuting the case.

The U.S. attorney's office said members of the public who have questions, concerns or information about the case can contact the U.S. attorney’s office at 617-748-3274.