May 28, 2008 11:42 pm
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By Jeff Lehr
jlehr@joplinglobe.com
A stepped-up effort in sting operations by area law-enforcement agencies targeting potential child-sex predators on the Internet has produced charges against more suspects in Missouri and Oklahoma.
The Ottawa County (Okla.) Sheriff’s Department announced the arrest Wednesday of a Miami, Okla., man on a child-pornography charge as well as the arrest over the weekend of a 62-year-old man who allegedly traveled 175 miles from Blackwell, Okla., expecting to have sex with a child younger than 16.
The Jasper County Sheriff’s Department reeled in a Columbia man last week on felony charges of sexual misconduct and enticement of a child, the first case to emerge from that agency’s assignment of a detective full time to Internet sex crimes.
And the Newton County prosecutor filed additional charges Wednesday against an Illinois man who had been charged in April with a similar crime in Jasper County.
“This is the first stand-alone (case) that we’ve done,” Cpl. Craig Davis of the Jasper County Sheriff’s Department said Wednesday of the arrest of the man from Columbia.
John S. Green, 25, was taken into custody Friday night after allegedly showing up to meet who he thought was a 13-year-old girl at the Super 8 Motel in Carthage. Sheriff’s Detective Ed Bailey had been having Internet chats with Green for a month under the guise of an underage girl, according to a probable-cause affidavit filed in Jasper County Circuit Court.
Green is charged with two counts of sexual misconduct with a child and one count of enticement of a child. The probable-cause affidavit states that Green initiated Internet chat conversations with Bailey’s chat-room persona on 14 occasions between April 22 and May 23.
The affidavit states that Green exposed himself to the presumed teen and masturbated via a webcam on April 24, May 12 and May 21, and that he sent a photo of his penis to Bailey on May 6. He also allegedly offered to instruct “the girl” sexually, arranged a meeting at the motel, and promised to bring his webcam to record them having sex.
A search of Green’s motel room and vehicle led to the seizure of a laptop computer, two webcams, eight condoms and a cell phone, according to the affidavit. Davis said the computer was sent to a forensic lab in Kansas City for a review of its hard drive.
“We’ll be looking at what’s on it, who he’s been talking to and whether there are any more victims out there,” Davis said.
Bailey had been working on such cases for several months in his spare time, Davis said, and just began working full time in that capacity about four weeks ago.
“He’s got several open investigations,” Davis said. “We expect several of them to be charged soon.”
Bailey had some experience working on computer crimes with the Henry County Sheriff’s Department before being hired by the Jasper County department, Davis said. He also has been working recently with Jim Murray, the former Diamond police chief who has brought several Internet sting cases to the Newton County prosecutor’s office in recent years as a reserve officer with the Diamond Police Department.
Area arrests
Bailey and Murray both reportedly made Internet contact with Kelly J. Williams, 23, of Stonington, Ill., in recent months, leading to a single count of felony sexual misconduct with a child filed April 21 by the Jasper County prosecutor and similar charges filed Wednesday by the Newton County prosecutor’s office.
Jake Skouby, Newton County prosecutor, said Williams was charged Wednesday with sexual misconduct with a minor and enticement of a child based on evidence gathered by Murray. Murray told the Globe that Williams allegedly committed those offenses after being charged in Jasper County based on evidence Bailey had gathered.
A probable-cause affidavit in the Newton County case states that Williams contacted Murray, who was posing as a 13-year-old girl named “Cindy,” on Yahoo Instant Messenger on May 6 and again May 7, and invited “Cindy” to view him masturbating via a webcam. He also sent her pornographic images, the affidavit states.
Ottawa County deputies arrested Michael D. Daly, of Blackwell, Okla., on Saturday after he allegedly traveled to Miami to meet someone he believed to be younger than 16, Undersheriff Bob Ernst said.
Ernst said he began Internet chatting with Daly about a month ago under the guise of a minor. Ernst said he had 10 separate chats with Daly that became sexually explicit and culminated in plans for Daly to travel to Miami to meet with the child at a convenience store.
When he was arrested Saturday, Daly allegedly had hydrocodone, Valium and Viagra pills in his possession, and a blanket and a bowie-type knife in his car.
“He’d discussed in chats that he’d bring a blanket so we could get out of his vehicle after driving around and engage in sexual activities,” Ernst said.
Daly was charged with making lewd or indecent proposals to a child younger than 16, a violation of the Oklahoma Computer Crimes Act and illegal possession of drugs. He appeared in court Tuesday and remained in custody Wednesday at the Ottawa County Jail, with bond set at $100,000.
Lloyd “Dean” Carder, 53, was arrested Wednesday afternoon at his Miami home when officers serving a search warrant allegedly turned up child pornography on several of his computers, compact discs and digital video discs.
The search warrant was based on information developed by Ernst and another Ottawa County sheriff’s officer assigned to the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force. Carder was charged with possession of child pornography, and posted a $100,000 bond and was released.
Legal issues
Internet stings of suspected child-sex predators remain a controversial aspect of law enforcement nationwide.
Darren Wallace, district defender for the Missouri State Public Defender System, said the Missouri Legislature designed state laws to avoid defense claims of entrapment. But the cases still raise criminal-justice questions because they usually involve an adult law-enforcement officer masquerading as a minor, he said.
“The publicity these types of cases receive from the national media makes it difficult to prepare a defense,” Wallace said.
He said it remains a legitimate question if law-enforcement agencies that conduct such stings are “creating criminal situations that might not otherwise have ever happened.”
There seem to be significantly more court cases in Southwest Missouri of defendants who allegedly committed crimes via the Internet with law-enforcement officers posing as children than there are cases in which defendants allegedly committed crimes with minors to whom they gained access through the Internet, Wallace said. He said there may be several reasons for that, including education of the public regarding Internet dangers.
“Maybe parents and families have come a long way toward protecting their own children,” Wallace said.
Skouby, the Newton County prosecutor, said just because there are fewer cases involving access gained to children over the Internet does not mean such crimes are not happening.
“We only hear of cases when victims report it,” he said. “If a 13-year-old is out there making contact with adults on the Internet, we may not hear about it until that child is old enough to realize that it is not appropriate.”
Murray, the Diamond officer, said he has been involved in at least four Internet sting cases in which defendants had actual sexual contact with underage victims.
“These guys are out there,” he said. “The idea that we’re creating them is way beyond my way of thinking.”
New charge
A former mayor of Collins, who was charged in January in Newton County with soliciting sex from a minor over the Internet, is now facing a similar charge in Cole County. The Jefferson City Police Department on May 14 sought a charge of felony sexual misconduct with a child younger than 14 against Allen Dale Kauffman, 62, as a consequence of a detective there recognizing the Internet handle Kauffman allegedly used in the Newton County case.
Former Diamond police Chief Jim Murray, who built the case against Kauffman while posing on the Internet as a young girl late last year, said he assisted Jefferson City police in their Internet sting case. Murray allegedly found an e-mail on Kauffman’s hard drive containing a pornographic video that he had sent to a Jefferson City detective.
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