Social Worker’s Tip Foils Child Sex Trafficking Plot

An investigation into an dating app has resulted in prison sentences for two men involved in a plot to abuse and traffic young children.

Jereme Benyola, 53, of Sicklerville, New Jersey, was sentenced last Thursday at the Bucks County Justice Center to seven to 15 years in state prison.

His co-defendant, 39-year-old Jonathan Michael Mitchell, 39, of Middletown Township’s Levittown section, is already serving an 18-to-48-month sentence at State Correctional Institution Dallas.

The probe started on July 2, 2024, when a social worker at Capital Health Regional Medical Center in Trenton alerted police after contact with Benyola.

According to investigators, Benyola alluded to child sex trafficking and the existence of child sexual abuse material involving four children, ages 2 to 9, at an apartment complex in Middletown Township.

Middletown Township detectives, who worked with Trenton police and the Mercer County (New Jersey) Prosecutor’s Office, identified Mitchell as a co-conspirator.

Mitchell had been using the online alias “Steve Carrol,” authorities said.

A forensic examination of Benyola’s cell phone by Middletown Township detectives Kassidy Groves and Kevin Platenecky showed the pair had transitioned their conversations from a dating app to the encrypted messaging service Telegram, police said.

The digital evidence showed Mitchell sending abuse videos to Benyola, who then offered money to meet the children and traveled to Levittown for that purpose, police said.

Investigators executed a search warrant at Mitchell’s Veterans Highway apartment on July 22, 2024.

As Mitchell denied involvement during interviews, a forensic download of his phone confirmed his relationship with Benyola and ongoing criminal conduct, police said.

Mitchell pleaded guilty Oct. 24, 2024, to felony counts of child sexual abuse material and criminal use of a communication facility.

In addition to his prison term, Bucks County Court of Common Pleas Judge Stephen Corr sentenced Mitchell to 36 months of probation and designated him a Tier 1 sexual offender under Megan’s Law.

Benyola entered a no contest plea on Nov. 17, 2025, to charges, including felony attempted involuntary deviate sexual intercourse with a child and child sexual abuse material. In addition to his prison sentence, Bucks County Court of Common Pleas Judge Charissa Liller ordered Benyola to serve 25 years of probation with strict conditions, including no internet access and no contact with minors.

Benyola is being held at the Bucks County Correctional Facility pending transfer to the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections.

The Middletown Township Police Criminal Investigations Division credited the “prompt intervention” of the hospital social worker and the cooperation of the Bucks County District Attorney’s Office for preventing the children from being trafficked.

Police thanked the other law enforcement officials involved, including the Bucks County Detectives and First Assistant District Attorney Kristin McElroy.