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Jonathan Edward Trumble, 39, of Cedar Grove has been held in the Iredell County Detention Center in Statesville, NC, since being extradited from New Jersey on June 11.
Trumble had been free pending trial in the Essex County case when a grand jury in North Carolina returned an indictment charging him with sexually assaulting a child there.
Iredell County Sheriff Darren Campbell said detectives from his Special Victims Unit began investigating inappropriate messages sent from Cedar Grove to a 13-year-old victim in March 2019.
They notified their Cedar Grove colleagues, who took Trumble into custody.
Essex County prosecutor’s detectives later charged Trumble with possession of child pornography and exchanging sexually explicit messages and images with a minor.
A Superior Court judge in Newark, in turn, released him with conditions.
Campbell said his SVU investigators received new information about Trumble last month.
They interviewed the alleged victim, as well as other witnesses, conducted a court-approved search and obtained a warrant for Trumble’s arrest, the sheriff said.
It's illegal in North Carolina for anyone 18 or older to have sex with anyone under 16, even if it's consensual.
Trumble remained held in North Carolina on a $1 million secured bond, charged with statutory rape, kidnapping and taking indecent liberties.
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