YOUNGSTOWN — Joseph A. Garchar, 46, of Lowellville, waived a detention hearing Thursday in U.S. District Court and consented to being detained by the U.S. Marshals Service without bail.

The waiver was part of Garchar’s arraignment hearing, which was conducted by video from the Mahoning County jail. Garchar pleaded not guilty before Magistrate Carmen Henderson to two counts of sexual exploitation of children. He was represented by assistant federal public defender Carolyn Kucharski.

Garchar has been in the county jail since Feb. 11, the day U.S. District Court Magistrate Judge George Limbert signed a criminal complaint naming him on allegations of sexual exploitation of children.

An investigation showed that Garchar had 18 photographs and / or videos on his cellphone that were taken April 10, 2021, and Oct. 29, 2021, of a child’s sex organs, according to an affidavit filed in the case.

An investigation by the Mahoning Valley Human Trafficking Task Force and the FBI began Dec. 30 at the request of the Pulaski Township, Pa., Police Department regarding possible child sexual abuse and production of child pornography by Garchar.

Pulaski police said that on or about Dec. 25, a Pulaski officer interviewed a Pulaski resident who reported that he or she looked through Garchar’s phone and found 18 photographs that the person believed depicted a child’s private parts.

Locational information indicated the photos were taken in Lowellville. Witnesses told investigators that Garchar had access to a child. An FBI agent viewed the images Jan. 3. A sexual assault nurse at the Children’s Advocacy Center in New Castle, Pa., later provided identification of the child depicted in the images through a physical examination of the child, the affidavit states.