Leon Valley man accused of grooming 16-year-old girl

SAN ANTONIO (KTSA News) — A Leon Valley man was arrested this week after his Facebook reportedly revealed he was chatting up a teenage girl.

Mason David Caldwell, 43, was arrested Tuesday on charges of online solicitation of a minor.

Arrest documents obtained by KSAT state Caldwell caught the interest of investigators after a witness reported text messages between him and the teenager.

Caldwell is reportedly a relative of a friend of the teenager involved in the case.

The Texas Attorney General’s Office reportedly received a tip about Caldwell on Cyber Tipline for Missing and Exploited Children and contacted investigators in June.

KSAT said this tip was cause for investigators to obtain a warrant to access Caldwell’s Facebook which revealed hundreds of messages dating back to January.

Investigators wrote that Caldwell appeared to be grooming the teenager. The arrest documents report that Caldwell started with a causal conversation that eventually led to a discussion about how “other people might tell her it’s wrong to be dating an older person, ‘but it isn’t.'”

Caldwell reportedly escalated the conversations to include sexual topics and investigators said he sent the teenager pornographic videos and asked her to send him pictures.

Caldwell was charged with online solicitation of a minor, a second-degree felony punishable by up to 20 years in prison and a fine up to $10,000. His bail was set at $75,000.