The U.S. Attorney’s Office has filed charges against a former local school music teacher and a man in Baltimore, alleging that the two made videos depicting the sexual exploitation of boys in the Philippines.
The local man was Joshua DeWitte, 50, a Cambridge resident and teacher at its Buckingham Browne & Nichols private school and before that in Cambridge Public Schools, on the campus of the Rindge Avenue Upper School and Peabody elementary from 2008 to 2022. No children in Cambridge have come forward to say they were harmed by DeWitte, according to police at the time of his Jan. 9 arrest and a Thursday press release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
After a Thursday appearance in federal court in Boston, DeWitte is being held until a hearing scheduled for Monday. He was charged with a count of sexual exploitation of minors, including attempt and conspiracy to commit that sexual exploitation.
According to the charging documents, Massachusetts State Police got a tip in December via the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children about an account on the Snapchat messaging app that uploaded a file of suspected child sexual abuse material – the abuse of a boy who appears to be between 8 and 10 years old. That account led to DeWitte, police said.
Records from Snapchat showed that in September he engaged in multiple sexual conversations with users who presented themselves as minors, asking for nude pictures; sending pictures of his penis; and discussing having in-person meetups for sex, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office. Investigators went to DeWitte’s home Jan. 9. Waiving his Miranda rights against self-incrimination, he came clean to investigators and told them he also had an account on the end-to-end encrypted Telegraph messaging app used for the same purpose, according to the charging documents.
“I was in the Philippines. Most of my vids are from there and that’s where I was with a 10 yo and 12. 16 yo in Japan and Korea,” DeWitte allegedly said on Telegram. “I have a contact there … He only records vids of the boys or arranges for my visit.”
It was on Telegram that police said they found conversations between DeWitte and someone identified as “Chris” in which they discussed making videos of “under age” boys in the Philippines to order for DeWitte, down to who would film the scenes, what angles the person filming would get and what shots should be included. While ordering the videos, DeWitte told Chris: “I need you to promise me that if [one of the minors] doesn’t like it, they don’t do it” and threatened to withhold payment if lubricant wasn’t used, according to texts recounted in the charging document. It wasn’t, for which Chris said he was sorry and, according to the documents, DeWitte replied: “I think [the minor] hates it. Anyway, it’s done now. I want new kids. That’s next.”
Chris was paid via 87 transactions on PayPal between July 3, 2023, and Dec. 27, 2024, in amounts ranging from $27 to $958, for a total $23,752, law enforcement officials said. Chris told DeWitte “U make me happy with the boy transactions makes me feel better less lonely here,”according to the charging documents.
The online payments were received by Christopher Allan Tisoy, 27, a Filipino national in Baltimore on an H-1B visa to work as a medical technologist at the Sinai Hospital there, police said.
Tisoy was arrested in Baltimore on Wednesday and, after an appearance in the District of Maryland, was ordered held for a hearing scheduled for a week later. Like DeWitte, he was charged with one count of sexual exploitation of minors, including attempt and conspiracy. Documents in the case describe him as an intermediary between DeWitte in Cambridge and the boys in the Philippines, arranging the videos and payments to the participants without being present.
The charges against DeWitte and Tisoy brings a mandatory minimum sentence of 15 years and up to 30 years in prison; at least five years and up to a lifetime of supervised release; and a fine of up to $250,000, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
Questions, concerns or information on the case should go to (617) 748-3274 or USAMA.VictimAssistance@usdoj.gov, officials said.
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