She was hired to supervise troubled youth. She gave one a gun and had sex with him, Bucks DA says.
Cristal Betancourt was hired to be a "house mom" in a group home for troubled teens, police say, but she coerced a 16-year-old boy into an illicit relationship, sometimes under threat of violence.
A New York woman who worked as a “house mom” supervising troubled teens at a group home in Feasterville gave a 16-year-old boy money, posed in pictures with him holding a gun, and forced him into a sexual relationship, prosecutors in Bucks County said Tuesday.
Cristal Betancourt, 30, told the teen in text messages in December 2024 that she was pregnant and asked him to buy her an emergency contraceptive, according to the affidavit of probable cause for her arrest.
But the boy, in an electronic diary he kept on his iPhone’s Notes app, said he was afraid of Betancourt, writing that she was “crazy” and once demanded sex from him at gunpoint, the affidavit said.
Betancourt has been charged with institutional sexual assault, corruption of minors, and related crimes. She had not been arraigned as of Tuesday afternoon. Efforts to reach her were unsuccessful.
Investigators were first notified of the alleged abuse in January, six months after the teen was court-ordered to move into the home at 700 Ross Dr. in Feasterville.
The property, operated by Community Service Foundation, provides housing and behavioral therapy for troubled teens, usually after they are taken into custody for criminal offenses. It operates similar to a foster home, with a full-time “house parent” who lives on the premises and supervises the teens.
That supervisor also makes recommendations to CSF as to whether the teens are worthy of being granted “home passes” to visit family and friends.
CSF did not return a request for comment on Betancourt or the charges she faces.
Lower Southampton police were notified by investigators in Lancaster County, where the boy lived before being assigned to the group home, that they had a photo of the teen holding a Walther PPQ handgun and standing next to Betancourt, the affidavit said. Records show that she had purchased a gun similar to the one in the photo, the document said.
In an interview with investigators, the affidavit said, Betancourt told them she owned two handguns, including the Walther, which she said had been recently stolen from her car. She said she had not reported the gun stolen and asked detectives to do that for her, according to the document.
Detectives later examined the 16-year-old’s phone and found other photos of him holding both of Betancourt’s guns, the affidavit said. He told police she had taken him to a gun shop to look at firearms and then purchased a second gun, a Palmetto Arms 5.7-caliber pistol. Text messages found on the boy’s phone showed that he had bragged to his friends that he was carrying a handgun of that caliber, the document said.
The teen’s cell phone showed that he had taken detailed notes of his sexual encounters with Betancourt inside the group home in November 2024, according to the affidavit. He wrote that he no longer wanted to have sex with her but was afraid she would “get him in trouble” or harm him if he refused, the affidavit said.
Cell phone records revealed that Betancourt had taken the teen on unauthorized trips to Lancaster in violation of his probation, while lying and saying they were at a Costco store in Warminster, the document said, and detectives found she had sent him $600 via CashApp the week before Christmas 2024.