Release posted on 01-31-25 AT 3:36 PM

This afternoon detectives arrested Michael Cherico, a recently hired civilian Property and Evidence clerk at the St. Petersburg Police Department.

Cherico was arrested for having sexually explicit conversations with two people he believed to be a 15-year-old girl and a 16-year-old girl and sending an explicit photo.

He is charged with:
-unlawful use of a 2-way communication device, -transmission of harmful material to a minor, -luring and enticing.

Cherico's employment was also immediately terminated. He was a newly hired employee and this was his fifth day on the job.