(File Photo of a Gavel)

Noah Haswell, Beaver County Radio News

(Washington County, PA) Eighteen-year-old Zachariah Meyers, a Peters Township High School senior appeared in court today in the Washington County Courthouse for a preliminary hearing on charges that accuse him of sextorting over twenty victims under the age of eighteen. Meyers was denied bail a second time at this court appearance, a week after a judge denied his bail the first time. Meyers now faces only sixty-seven charges after he initially faced more than three hundred. Lawyers for Meyers asked the judge if he could be let out on bond, but the judge denied that, saying that he remains a threat to the community and he is a flight risk. This comes after a recent incident in which according to investigators, at least twenty-one boys were catfished and sextorted after Meyers pretended to be an adult film star from the Netherlands, with at least 14 teenagers sending pornographic pictures of themselves. After executing a search warrant at the home of Meyers on Windermere Court earlier this year, police confirm that they took Meyers into custody and a search of his phone found evidence that tied him to the social media accounts that targeted the minors. Meyers is still in the Washington County Jail without bond and his charges included trafficking in minors, sexual abuse of children, sexual exploitation of children, sexual extortion and unlawful contact with a minor.