Counter-Strike Co-Creator Arrested For Sexual Exploitation of a Child (Updated)

Jess Cliffe is best known for helping to create the orginal 1999 Counter-Strike game, a mod of Half-Life, with Minh Le back when they were students at Virginia Tech. Valve took over the rights to the game and he continued to work on it since then. He is currently a employee at Valve and has been since 2003, but it has been revealed by Valve in a statement to Kotaku that Cliffe has been suspended. 

"We are still learning details of what actually happened. Reports suggest he has been arrested for a felony offense. As such, we have suspended his employment until we know more."

According to local news station KIRO 7, Cliffe has not been charged with a crime, as of yet. He was booked into the King County Jail at 1:17 AM and was orginally denied bail. He is expected to have a bail hearing Friday. Police did not disclose whether or not a child had been harmed and Cliffe does not have any prior criminal history. 

Along with being a co-creator of Counter-Strike, Cliffe has had his voice featured in the game as well. He has also worked on level design for multiple Valve titles that include Half-Life 2, Team Fortress 2, Left 4 Dead 2, and Portal 2. We will continue to follow the story as it progresses.

Update: Seattle Police (2/6/2018 3:09 PM PST)

According to a Seattle Police report, Counter-Strike co-creator Jess Cliffe has officially been charged with commercial sexual abuse of a minor. Cliffe was released on $150,000 bail last Friday, but is now accused of paying a 16 year old girl for sex on three different occasions and filming them both having sex, against the girl's will, with an iphone. Cliffe met the juvenile victim, who is referenced in the Police report by her initials AC, on a website called Seeking Arrangement. 

AC explained to police that she held back from saying anything about Cliffe filming her "out of fear that she could be harmed or killed based on her small size and accounts of other people who had been violently assaulted during a prostitution date." 

She also told police she "wanted to point out that it was illegal to be in possession of child pornography (in reference to the video he had just taken), but decided against it as to not upset him in addition to the fact that [she] could not be certain he was aware of her true age of 16 years."

According to a report by Ars Technica, during Cliffe's bail hearing, Cliffe's defense attorney stated that "his client was not looking for underage women and had no idea this woman was underage."

Cliffe remains suspended from his employment at Valve. We will continue to update you all as this story unfolds.