A former Cambridge music teacher was arrested Thursday in connection with paying minor boys and another man to produce child sexual abuse material for him, the Massachusetts U.S. Attorney’s Office announced.

Cambridge resident Joshua DeWitte, 50, and Christopher Allan Tisoy, 27 — a Filipino national residing in Baltimore — have been charged with one count each of sexual exploitation of minors, as well as associated attempt and conspiracy charges, the U.S. Attorney’s office said in a press release .

At the time DeWitte is alleged to have committed these crimes, he was at the Buckingham, Browne & Nichols K-12 School, according to the U.S. Attorney’s office and Middlesex District Attorney Marian Ryan’s Office . Cambridge Public Schools did not respond to a request for comment Thursday evening.

Tisoy entered the U.S. legally in September 2024 and is employed as a medical technologist at the Sinai Hospital of Baltimore, the U.S. Attorney’s office said.

In December 2024, DeWitte was identified as the owner of a Snapchat account that uploaded a file of suspected child sexual abuse material depicting the abuse of a boy who appeared to be between eight and 10 years old, the U.S. Attorney’s office said. Records obtained from Snapchat indicated that DeWitte had multiple conversations that were sexual in nature with users who presented themselves as minors in September 2024.

In those conversations, DeWitte requested nude pictures from the purported minors, sent pictures of his penis and discussed previous and potential in-person meetups during which they would have sexual relations, the U.S. Attorney’s office said. Additionally, it is alleged that DeWitte paid and offered to pay another Snapchat user to obtain and produce child sexual abuse material.

Based on that information, state law enforcement obtained a search warrant for DeWitte’s home in January 2025, the U.S. Attorney’s office said. He was then arrested and charged in Cambridge District Court with six counts of disseminating obscene material to a child, one count of distribution of material depicting a child in a sexual act and one count of possession of child pornography. He was later released with conditions.

A forensic examination of DeWitte’s cell phone — which was seized when he was first arrested — revealed a Telegram conversation between him and Tisoy in which they arranged for the production of videos depicting the sexual exploitation of at least two minor boys in the Philippines, the U.S. Attorney’s office said. The two are alleged to have negotiated conditions under which the videos would be produced, including which minors should be involved, which sex acts they would perform, who would film them, what angles would be filmed and how much DeWitte would pay Tisoy for each video.

The negotiation incorporated the sexual preferences of both men, with both agreeing on what they would each find sexually gratifying, the U.S. Attorney’s office said. Tisoy then allegedly relayed these instructions to the minor victims to create a video.

DeWitte is alleged to have paid Tisoy for each video he produced and sent, the U.S. Attorney’s office said. It is alleged that, between July 3, 2023 and Dec. 27, 2024, DeWitte sent 87 PayPal payments to Tisoy, in amounts ranging from $27 to $958 and totaling nearly $24,000.

DeWitte was arraigned in federal court in Boston on Thursday and held pending a hearing on May 12, the U.S. Attorney’s office said. Tisoy was arrested and arraigned Wednesday in Baltimore and ordered held pending a hearing on May 14.

The charges provide for a sentence of 15 to 30 years in prison, five years to a lifetime of supervised release and a fine of up to $250,000.