Former Sheriff's Officer Brian McRee Arrested in Sex Sting

Fourteen men, including a former Jacksonville sheriff’s officer, have been arrested in the week-long Operation Volusia Spring Cleaning cyber-sting that targeted adults looking to meet children for sex, according to the Volusia County Sheriff’s Office.

Brian McRee, 51, was charged Saturday with 50 counts of possession of sexual performance by a child, plus use of a computer to solicit a minor, traveling to solicit a minor and unlawful use of two-way communications, according to the Volusia Sheriff’s Office. Surveillance video shows him being wrestled to the floor during his arrest at a decoy house in DeBary. A bottle of liquor, gun, a computer with child pornography, a digital camera and an injectable treatment for erectile dysfunction were found on him, according to investigators.

Officer Chris Buffaloe Faces Child Sex Crimes

A veteran law enforcement officer and noted canine handler and trainer has been charged with numerous counts for allegedly engaging in sexual activity with a 14-year-old girl.

Christopher (Chris) Turner Buffaloe, 27, of Conway, was jailed Tuesday on $1,294,000 bond and has a first court appearance in Northampton County today (Thursday).

The date of offenses, according to warrants filed in the Northampton County Courthouse, and based on investigation by the State Bureau of Investigation, range from March 1 to April 14.

The SBI investigation shows Buffaloe allegedly committed a range of crimes against the girl, from sexual intercourse to sending photos of his genitalia.

He faces the following charges:

Six counts of felony statutory rape that include alleged sexual activity with the child;

One count of indecent liberties with a child that alleges he committed and attempted to commit a lewd and lascivious act with the child;

One count of felony second-degree exploitation of a minor, a count that alleges he received and solicited material that contained a visual representation of a minor engaged in sexual activity and a picture of the child’s sexual organ. The count alleges he asked the victim to send him naked pictures;

One count of felony solicitation of a child by computer. This count alleges soliciting by means of a computer and through texting a meeting for the purpose of committing an unlawful sexual act with the child; and

One count of disseminating obscene material, a charge that alleges he sent a picture of his genitalia to the child.

Buffaloe has worked with several law enforcement agencies in Northampton and Halifax counties throughout his career, to include the Seaboard Police Department. He was named in January of 2010 at the Captain of Conway-Severn Rescue Squad, an entity that offers a Juniors (ages 14-17) program in an effort to get young people interested in becoming the next generation of EMT’s.

Former Officer Robert Lodwick Pleads Guilty to Soliciting Sex from Teen

A former Youngstown city police officer faces sentencing after soliciting sex from a 14-year-old girl and taking nude pictures of her.

41-year-old Robert Lodwick pleaded guilty in Mahoning County Common Pleas court to charges of importuning, pandering obscenity, and illegal use of a minor in nudity oriented material.

The prosecutor is recommending a sentence of 18 months in jail when he is sentenced at 10:00 a.m. on June 4.

Lodwick was a Detective Sergeant with the Youngstown police department until he was fired in June after the allegations surfaced.

Corrections Officer Jimmie Sturdivant Arrested for Soliciting a Minor

A Texas Department of Criminal Justice Corrections Officer has been arrested for alleged online solicitation of a minor.

According to the Taylor County Sheriff’s Office, Jimmie Leon Sturdivant, 43, traveled from Snyder to Abilene to meet up with a 13-year-old for sex.

The TCSO says the incident is not connected to Sturdivant’s employment as a corrections officer.

Sturdivant is being held on a $50,000 bond.

Corrections Officer John Kamphaus Arrested for Soliciting a Minor

A Hamilton County Justice Center corrections officer faces a single charge after authorities say he went online to try to meet and have sex with a 15-year-old girl.

The officer, 40-year-old John Kamphaus, was arrested early Wednesday morning near Mills Road Park in Independence, Ky. as an undercover police officer posing as that teen chatted with him on his smartphone.

As court documents show, Kamphaus, known as BigDog06900@aol.com online, exchanged messages with Detective Stephen Benner, a Kenton County Internet Crimes Against Children task force officer, about 4 times this year.

"Our officer is on-line in chat rooms," said Kenton County Police Chief Brian Capps. "He just is waiting to be contacted by folks out there in cyberland for lack of a better term. He was contacted by this gentleman and a chat begins. Our officer had no idea who he was talking to on the other end."

At about 1:20 a.m. Kenton County police officers initiated a traffic stop and pulled Kamphaus over on Marshall Road shortly after he sent a final message via Yahoo messenger.

"He believed he was going to be meeting this female for sexual activity," Capps said. "The chats leading up to this were sexual in nature."

Officers arrested the father of three young children without incident and took his cellphone as evidence.

"In this particular case, being another law enforcement officer, I just describe it as being very disappointing," Capps said of Kamphaus' arrest. "Kind of a letdown that someone in your profession would be involved in this kind of thing."

Kamphaus appeared for video arraignment on one charge of prohibited use of electronic means to induce a minor to engage in sexual activities Wednesday morning at about 9 a.m.

He received a $2,500 bond and was ordered to surrender all electronic devices to the court. If he posted bond, the judge also ordered Kamphaus to wear a GPS tracking device once released from jail.

Kamphaus, a Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office employee since 1996, was also placed on unpaid administrative leave by Hamilton County until the disposition of his case was resolved.

Hamilton County Sheriff officials said they launched their own internal affairs investigation to see if Kamphaus used county equipment to attempt to communicate with minors online.

Kenton County Commonwealth Attorney Rob Sanders said he was not surprised that even a law enforcement officer could get caught in such an online investigation.

"I think it's just a sense that it's not going to happen to me, I'm not the one that will get caught. I'm not the one that's going to end up on the news," said Sanders, whose office will prosecute the case. "Obviously in the situation we're talking about with the most recent charges, it's a law enforcement officer that got caught -- that's been arrested -- and been charged. He's innocent until proven guilty, but certainly if a law enforcement officer is getting arrested they more than anybody should know that there are cops out there looking for this and investigating this and just setting a trap for somebody to walk into."

Sanders said he believed such potential sexual predator situations are only increasing online, and that the job of such undercover officers as Benner were so important.

"I'm glad there's cops out there like Detective Benner that are trolling the Internet looking for these predators and doing whatever they can to try and take them off the streets before they actually get their hands on another young girl," Sanders said.

Officer Michael Stavris Accused of Setting up Fake Facebook Account to Solicit Young Boys

Michael Stavris, the Bunnell police officer who was arrested and accused of setting up a fake Facebook account to solicit young boys for sexually explicit pictures, was using his daughter's identity, according to his ex-girlfriend.

Stavris' ex-girlfriend also has an injunction for protection against domestic violence placed against the police officer, who has been suspended without pay. The woman claims Stavris has threatened suicide unless she agreed to continue their relationship.

Stavris, 30, was arrested and charged Tuesday on two counts of computer pornography and one count of criminal use of personal identification information. His bond was set at $125,000. He has been released from the Flagler County Inmate Facility.

The injunction is temporary, and a judge is expected to issue a ruling on April 3.

Stavris was a police officer in Edgewater from 2008 to 2009 before leaving to take a position with the Duval County School District, where he worked as a school security officer from 2009 to 2010. His job had him patrolling school campuses after school hours and on the weekends. He had no interaction with children.

Officer Charles Hagge Arrested for Sexual Abuse of Minor

A Baltimore police officer was arrested Wednesday in Howard County and charged with sexual abuse and solicitation of a minor, county police said.

Charles Hagge, 44 of the 8800 block of Goose Landing Circle in Columbia was arrested after police say he communicated with a 14-year-old advertising prostitution services online.

Howard County police said investigators believe the two exchanged text messages before meeting at his home and engaging in sexual activity on three occasions between January and May 2013.

Police said Hagee was taken into custody at Baltimore police headquarters on charges of third- and fourth-degree sexual offense, sexual solicitation of a minor and prostitution. Hagee was being held on $75,000 bond and did not have a lawyer listed in court records.

Howard County police said Hagee was assigned to the Special Enforcement Section, an elite unit that investigates violent crimes. Baltimore police said Hagee worked in administrative roles and would be suspended with pay if he posts bond, per department policy.

For years, Hagee had been on a list of officers deemed untrustworthy by prosecutors, known as the "do not call" list, under the administration of former Baltimore State's Attorney Patricia C. Jessamy. The list was a tool for prosecutors to prevent police from working on cases in which their integrity might be challenged on the stand.

The Baltimore Sun reported in 2008 that Hagee had responded to a woman's 911 call in 2004 even though he knew he was the subject of her complaint, and then attempted to misdirect other officers into chasing a fake suspect.

At a department trial board, Hagee pleaded guilty in August 2006 to two administrative charges of conduct unbecoming a police officer and received a 10-day suspension, loss of 10 days' leave and involuntary transfer from the Organized Crime Division, according to court records.

He was allowed to return to enforcement work briefly in 2008, but after prosecutors discovered the 911 case and Jessamy placed him on the do not call list, he was assigned to administrative duties, according to records and news reports.

Hagee sued the Baltimore Police Department in 2009, alleging that he suffered racial and gender discrimination as a white male. He alleged that black and female officers in similar misconduct cases received lighter punishment. The lawsuit was dismissed.

Court records show that Hagee was not a police witness in any case filed in court from the time he was placed on the list until 2011, after the election of State's Attorney Gregg L. Bernstein, who vowed during his campaign to abolish the list. Hagee is listed as a police witness in about a dozen cases, including a burglary case from 2013 in which a man received four years in prison.

Asked for comment on the status of the do not call list, spokesman Mark Cheshire said the state's attorney's office does not maintain such a list.

"We conduct evaluations on case-by-case basis to determine if we can go forward with the evidence we have," Cheshire said.

City records show that Hagee earned more than double his base salary in fiscal year 2013, with gross pay of $138,800 on a base salary of $65,200. In fiscal year 2012, he earned about $130,800 on $64,600 base pay.

Lt. Michael Hayes Charged with Solicitation of Minor

The second in command of a small Brunswick County police force paid a teen $60 for sex acts, an arrest warrant detailed Wednesday.

Michael Alan Hayes, 38, a lieutenant with the Northwest Police Department, surrendered to police Wednesday morning on charges of solicitation of a minor for sex and filing a false police report. He has since been released.

According to the warrant, Hayes contacted the girl via Craigslist.org and met with her Nov. 27.

The warrant also charges that on the same day, Hayes filed a false report with the Brunswick County Sheriff's Office "concerning the sources and circumstances of the damage to the vehicle" he was operating. The warrant alleges Hayes' false report prevented a deputy from fully investigating "the cause of bullet strikes to the vehicle."

According to the Brunswick County Sheriff's Office, Hayes reported he was driving his personal vehicle along River Road near Sunny Point on Nov. 27 when someone shot at his car. Hayes reported finding a dent in the body of the vehicle and a hole in his tire.

How that relates to the prostitution charge was not immediately clear.

Hayes, an eight-year veteran of the Northwest Police Department, tendered his resignation to Chief Copelan Taylor on Tuesday, Taylor said.

"I have some issues I need to attend to in my personal life," Hayes wrote in the two-sentence resignation provided to the StarNews by Taylor.

The chief said the N.C. State Bureau of Investigation contacted him Saturday to say that Hayes was being investigated. Taylor said he put Hayes on 30 days of paid leave that night.

According to Jennifer Canada, spokeswoman for the SBI, the investigation into Hayes followed a request from the Boiling Spring Lakes Police Department, which recently arrested two men in connection with a prostitution investigation that began there in November 2012.

On May 4, Boiling Spring Lakes police arrested Kyle Bradley Wolfe, 20, and Shawn Christopher Conley, 20, on charges of prostitution of a minor.

Boiling Spring Lakes Police Chief Brad Shirley said at the time of the arrests the investigation involved advertisements on the Internet via different social media websites. The warrant for Hayes names the same 17-year-old girl as the warrants for Wolfe and Conley.

Hayes has a misdemeanor death by vehicle conviction on his record from May 1991 in New Hanover County.

According to an article in the Wilmington Morning Star, Hayes was 16 when the car he was driving ran into the back of a vehicle on Gordon Road. His 14-year-old girlfriend, Jennifer Allen, was killed and two others – Sharon Shivar, 15, and Kevin Francis Dwyer, 16 – were injured. The group was on the way to school at Laney High, the article states.

Hayes was convicted of the misdemeanor in August 1993.

Chief Taylor said he was unaware of the incident, but it would not have prevented Hayes from becoming a police officer.

Officer Noe Yanez Arrested for Possession of Child Porn

A nine-year veteran of the Long Beach Police Department has been arrested on suspicion of felony possession of child pornography after reportedly meeting a teenager while on patrol and soliciting explicit photographs of the youth through electronic messages, police said.

Noe Yanez, 40, was taken into custody Thursday evening by Long Beach police after an investigation that began earlier this month. The alleged victim had told a school resources officer about the messages and authorities were alerted. Detectives served several search warrants in the investigation of Yanez's home and other establishments for records of the communications.

 

Former Officer Adam Lee Meacham in Court for Sexually Abusing Teen in Ride-Along Program

A circuit court judge in Rawlins has opted to take under advisement a case against a former Rawlins police captain and Carbon County commissioner charged with sexual assault, soliciting a child to participate in illicit acts, furnishing alcohol to minors and other crimes.

Carbon County Circuit Court Judge Jane Eakin at a preliminary hearing on Friday did not make a ruling to send the felony counts faced by 45-year-old Adam "Lee" Meacham to Carbon County District Court.

Meacham has yet to enter pleas, and it's unclear when Eakin will make a ruling.

Authorities say Meacham sexually abused a teen between the ages of 15 and 17 while the girl was participating in a police department ride-along program. He faces 15 criminal charges in the case.

A former Rawlins resident sued Meacham and the city in 2007, contending Meacham sexually assaulted her. The lawsuit was settled for $250,000.

Information from: Rawlins Daily Times

Deputy Trenedy Brooks Charged with Statutory Rape

The Morristown Citizen-Tribune is reporting that a suspended Grainger County deputy – who is under investigation by the TBI – has been arraigned on charges of statutory rape and solicitation of a minor, according to Sheriff James Harville.

Trenedy Brooks faces two counts of statutory rape. Investigators said the alleged female victim is 16, according to published reports. Brooks was arrested on Friday and was released over the weekend on a $60,000 bond.

Brooks, 27, was placed on leave in May of 2009 due to being under investigation by the TBI on an unrelated incident. Harville said he is unsure of the status of the TBI investigation.

Hearing Set for Former Officer Rodney Frick Accused of Raping Minor

Rodney Frick, a former Pocola auxiliary police officer accused of raping a minor, will have a preliminary hearing of his case at 9 a.m. Jan. 14, according to court records.

Frick, 51, of Pocola had an initial appearance in District Court on Thursday. Frick is accused of second-degree rape and soliciting sexual conduct or communication with a minor by use of technology.

Preliminary hearings are held to allow the judge to determine if there is sufficient evidence of the alleged offense/s to bind defendants over for trial.

District Attorney Jeffrey Smith has said that Frick, who also owns Hot Rod’s BBQ in Pocola, turned himself in on a complaint he had sex on multiple occasions with a teenager over an up to two-year period.

Smith has said Frick met the teen through his restaurant and is not suspected of illegal activity with any other minors.

Frick was arrested Nov. 10 and released on a $10,000 bond.

He is represented by Poteau defense attorney Gary Buckles.

On Thursday, Pocola Police Chief Dale Fout said Frick was an unpaid auxiliary officer who worked infrequently for the Pocola Police Department.

Fout said as soon as the information came in regarding the pending charges against Frick, Frick was no longer considered an employee.

Officer Adrian Makuch Charged with Soliciting Minor

A veteran police officer is free on bail after being charged with soliciting sex from minors.

Officer Adrian Makuch, 49, a crime scene investigator, is accused of making contact with a 15-year-old boy in the Northeast last summer and trying to lure him into his vehicle. The boy refused, but allegedly saw the officer several more times and filed a complaint last December.

Police then launched a sting operation, including coordination with other agencies and surveillance of Makuch, which revealed an “alarming and disturbing pattern,” according to Internal Affairs Chief Inspector Anthony DiLacqua.

DiLacqua said that Makuch, a 21-year veteran, also made contact with an undercover officer who he thought was a 17-year-old. He allegedly exchanged text messages and solicited the officer for sex.

Police said they are unsure how Makuch found the 15-year-old, and that he may have had contact with other minors.

“I don’t know of a relationship between Makuch and the 15-year-old, other than Makuch soliciting him,” DiLacqua said.

Makuch had a preliminary hearing yesterday and bail was set at $20,000. He posted 10 percent bail and was released, but has been suspended for 30 days with the intent to dismiss.

Makuch could not be reached for comment.

Former Deputy Brian Edward Henry Accused of Soliciting Tenn

A former Montague (mahn-TAYG') County deputy is accused of soliciting sexual favors from a 16-year-old girl during a traffic stop.

Brian Edward Henry has been free since posting $102,000 in bonds after his arrest last month following his indictment, which initially was sealed. It's unclear if he has an attorney.

The 27-year-old Roanoke man faces up to 20 years in prison if convicted of indecency with a child charge and a year in jail if convicted of official oppression.

Montague County District Attorney Jack McGaughey (mah-GOY') says Henry's arrest is unrelated to a jail scandal that rocked the county on the Red River. Earlier this year 17 people, including the former sheriff and some jailers, were indicted on charges of having sex with inmates or bringing them drugs.


Information from: Wichita Falls Times Record News, http://www.timesrecordnews.com

Former Officer Michael Meissner Held on Numerous Felony Charges

A former police officer who worked for over a dozen departments in Texas is behind bars Tuesday, held on numerous felony charges including engaging in organized criminal activity, promotion of prostitution, solicitation of minors and two counts of attempting to possess child pornography.

Activist and filmmaker Barry Cooper, who is producing a reality show called “KopBusters,” aided officers with the Combine Police Department in drawing the man out into the open, ultimately helping wrap a three-year investigation in the process.

Until late last month, Michael Meissner, 39, was chief of police in Little River-Academy, Texas, a town so small that it only had one officer. He resigned his post after residents of the small town packed city hall with complaints about his behavior, according to local reports.

Meissner called the town “a good stepping stone for me,” reported Temple Daily News, which noted that the former officer held 18 different law enforcement jobs over the last 14 years. The “gypsy cop,” said Dallas television station WFAA, “seemed to operate under his own rules, spending much of his time working off-duty security jobs 60 miles away in Dallas.”

Prior WFAA reports “found that Meissner had used a phony college diploma for certification and failed to let his employers know that he had been arrested twice,” the network added.

Combine police were initially probing Meissner over suggestions that he had misused official information to retaliate against another man. However, when they looked at Meissner’s text messages and e-mail, they claim to have discovered something much worse.

“When the affidavits are released, the public is going to be shocked,” said Cooper, speaking to reporters outside Meissner’s home. “The conversation and the lewd conduct he’s been involved in with high school boys. As an ex-police officer, it makes me sick that we’ve got a guy running around here in a badge, that the public is supposed to trust, and he’s using that uniform to breach the trust of the younger citizens in the community. It’s horrible.”

Two of Meissner’s neighbors additionally told RAW STORY they had repeatedly seen various teenage boys entering and leaving the residence.

“Man, I’m just glad police are doing their job, they’re heroes,” said next door neighbor Brenda Lambert. “Anyone that messes with children needs to be taken care of.”

“We don’t regret hiring him or letting him go,” Little River Mayor Ronnie White told the Daily News when Meissner resigned last month. “We will find another officer.”

Tactical officers, who had set up a staging area just one street from Meissner’s Arlington, Texas home, raided the residence at approximately 1:45 p.m. on Monday, but the suspect was gone.

He was arrested later that evening after returning to his home. Meissner actually called Cooper to warn that his that his home had apparently been raided. Cooper then called police and relayed Meissner’s location.

A judge has set Meissner’s bond at $1.5 million.

Cooper says he was in this instance an undercover journalist and police informant, who had befriended Meissner under the false pretense that he wanted to use KopBusters for the purpose of clearing his name.

For the man whose living is paid for by a DVD series on how to grow, sell and smuggle marijuana without being detected by the police, he certainly seemed to have a natural rapport with the officers on-scene.

One of them even asked Cooper how his former law enforcement mentor in Odessa was doing.

“Oh man, he was a legend back in my day,” he replied. “Unfortunately, he planted meth on an innocent woman and I had to bust him.”

After officers kicked in Meissner’s door and cordoned off his home, the front yard became what seemed to be Cooper’s first campaign stop in what he says is a serious run for Texas attorney general. He even put on a suit before heading to the location with reporters and his camera crew in-tow.

“Within a short time, we hope to have a corrupt police chief in jail for seven felony warrants [for] harming kids,” he told reporters. “I acted as a undercover journalist-informant, they listed me as the informant on the arrest affidavit. I befriended this officer and made him believe that I was his friend and that I wanted to clear his name. The truth was, I was relaying all that information to the Combine police department.”

Cooper continued: “As an ex-narcotics officer, I’ve experienced corruption and seen it myself. My wife suggested that I use my experience to go and start busting corrupt police officers instead of citizens. That’s when we formed ‘KopBusters,’ a reality TV show. We’re hoping to have 13 episodes up on [...] TV very soon. I feel [passionate] about my job, and we’re using these stings so I can win Texas attorney general in 2010, because in that position I can expose police corruption even further, take their salaries and begin paying police officers six-figure incomes … The one’s that deserve it.”

Steve Allen, police chief in Combine, Texas, called Cooper’s brand of law enforcement activism an “excellent resource.”

“Police officers need all the help they can get,” he said. “There’s a lot of things, for example, [Barry] may have drawn him out of the woodwork for us — something that we couldn’t do that he did. So, I think [KopBusters] is an excellent resource and tool for us.”

In December, Cooper and his team of lawyers and investigators staged a sting on the Odessa, Texas police department, setting up a fake marijuana grow house and baiting officers to raid it without proper legal authorization. It was the first of what Cooper promises to be many future operations against allegedly dirty police.

This video was captured by a cameraman with Barry Cooper’s KopBusters on Sept. 14, 2009.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jP6xegUf3-E

Dominic Boulter Accused of Soliciting Minor

A Canadian citizen employed with the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office detention center has been accused of using the Internet to solicit minors for sex.

Dominic Boulter, 51, a six-year veteran of the sheriff's office, has been using the Web since January to seek out and chat with minors ages 13 to 17, investigators said in a Maricopa County court document.

Two girls admitted to chatting with Boulter and sending him naked pictures of themselves, which investigators found on his computer. In all, investigators have identified eight girls in different states across the country who communicated with Boulter.

Boulter, a married resident of Sun City, sent naked photos of himself as well as pornographic pictures and videos to the girls, investigators said.

Boulter told the girls he was 15, but also gave them the ages 27 and 32. He identified himself to the girls as a police officer.

Boulter in an initial interview with investigators admitted to sending harmful images to a minor and encouraging her to masturbate while they were chatting via text messages and using a web camera. He also admitted in the interview that he knew she was a minor.

It's behavior Boulter's Sun City neighbors said was way out of character.

"I'm shocked because we've talked a few times and he's always been very productive of everyone," said neighbor

Boulter did not make additional statements when investigators confronted him with evidence of communication with other girls, investigators said.

Charges against Boulter include four counts of obscene material and transmitting it to a minor; two counts of sexual exploitation of a minor and two counts of unlawful age representation.

Boulter has been a detention officer with MCSO since May 2003.

He was being held on a $20,000 bond.

Ex-Officer Michael Curtin Jr Arrested Again

A fired Munhall police officer who is serving a five-year probation sentence for unlawful sexual contact with minors was arrested last night on charges he violated conditions of his release.

Michael Curtin Jr., 37, had faced 11 counts in connection with soliciting girls for sex acts. He pleaded guilty in February to two counts of unlawful sexual contact with minors and one count of corruption of minors.

Common Pleas President Judge Donna Jo McDaniel sentenced Mr. Curtin to five years probation. Condition of his probation included his prohibition from using computers or texting on his cell phone.

A warrant was issued yesterday for his arrest in connection with an undisclosed probation violation that occurred at the Waterfront in Homestead.

Mr. Curtin is being held on a detainer in the Allegheny County Jail, pending arraignment on his arrest.

Judge McDaniel, before the arrest, had granted Mr. Curtin permission to leave the state tomorrow to vacation with his parents in Delaware until Aug. 10.

That permission now is expected to be be revoked.

Mr. Curtin also is scheduled for a Sept. 10 hearing before Judge McDaniel to consider whether he should be classified as a sexually violent predator.

Mr. Curtin was fired in February 2008 from the Munhall Police Department following his arrest. He had been investigated for soliciting teenage girls online for sex and offering them money to allow him to suck their toes.
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Previous Post: http://whathappenedtoprotectandserve.blogspot.com/2008/05/ex-cop-arrested-for-offering-money-to.html
Other Information: http://www.wpxi.com/news/20216386/detail.html

Former Trooper Albert Silveri III on Trial for Soliciting Minor

A former Pennsylvania state trooper on trial for allegedly soliciting underage sex on the Internet from an undercover cop said yesterday that he never intended to go ahead with a planned meeting.

A Delaware County prosecutor disagreed and said work kept the trooper from the appointment.

Albert Silveri III, 40, of Aston, opted to forgo a jury trial and have his case heard before Common Pleas Court Judge Frank T. Hazel. Silveri was arrested in July on charges of criminal solicitation and criminal use of a communication facility.

In April, Silveri first made contact in an Internet chat room with a Delaware County detective who was posing as a woman with two daughters, ages 8 and 10. Silveri used the screen name "Strongwilled07." Sex was discussed in all of the chats. In late July, Silveri made an appointment to meet with the woman and her daughters.

Yesterday while on the stand, he told Michael Galantino, deputy district attorney, that the fantasy was in the conversation. He said that he had corresponded in chat rooms hundreds of times and that the sexually explicit language came easily to him. But, Silveri said, he never intended to carry through with the meeting and didn't.

Galantino questioned whether Silveri, an accident-reconstruction specialist in the Belmont barracks in Philadelphia, missed the appointment he had set up with the fictitious mother and her daughters because he was busy at work.

Steven M. Pacillio, Silveri's attorney, said that although the conversations in the chat room were "reprehensible and not socially acceptable," they were not illegal.

Hazel said he would issue a verdict June 26.

Former Officer Sean Patrick Indicted for Soliciting a Minor

A Charleston police officer accused of soliciting sex from a minor on the internet was indicted on the charges in Virginia.

Sean Patrick was indicted for soliciting a minor between 15 years old and 18 years old.

The indictment was filed on Monday and Patrick answered the indictment during a hearing Tuesday.

Patrick was arrested in Charleston back in February for allegedly having sexually explicit chats, sending nude pictures and making plans to meet a girl from Virginia. The girl turned out to be an undercover agent.

Patrick is expected back in court on June 8.
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Previous Information: http://whathappenedtoprotectandserve.blogspot.com/2009/02/officer-sean-patrick-arrested-for.html

Trooper James Gilbert Charged with Soliciting Sex from Minor

A state trooper accused of having sexual communications with the teenage daughter of another FHP employee has been fired and charged with soliciting sex from a minor.

And now an internal probe by the Orange County Sheriff's Office has targeted the trooper's ex-wife after she was accused of trying to intimidate the teen's mother.

James E. Gilbert was a trooper for more than 15 years when he was arrested Dec. 4 on 10 counts of solicitation of a minor via a computer. The Florida Highway Patrol terminated him the next day.

Gilbert is accused of having sexual conversations and text messages with a 17-year-old. An FHP investigative report said Gilbert, who was a corporal, sent the girl more than 600 text messages during a one-month period last year.

In a written statement filed in Orange County court, the girl's mother said Gilbert talked about taking the teen to a cabin in Tennessee where they would "take things slow."

The teen told an investigator she told Gilbert he shouldn't talk to her that way. She said Gilbert, 45, responded by saying things like, "Nothing illegal about this; we're doing nothing wrong." And, "It's your choice, even if anybody found out, if I still want to do something or if you did, nobody can stop us; there's nothing wrong with it."

Gilbert would not comment Thursday. When questioned in November by an investigator, Gilbert also chose not to make a statement, an FHP report said.

He is free on bond and is slated to go to trial in August.

Meanwhile, the teen's mother said their stress about the situation intensified when Gilbert's ex-wife, Orange County Deputy Alberta Gilbert, tried to intimidate her at work last month.

The mother runs a business at a Florida's Turnpike service plaza. She said Alberta Gilbert came to the plaza, walked past her business and mouthed a curse word. She said Gilbert's wife then sat at a table near her business for more than an hour. She said the deputy rubbed her gun and stared at her.

"I was scared that she was going to do something," the woman said.

The mother said she gave the Orange County Sheriff's Office a surveillance video from inside the plaza. The Sheriff's Office confirmed Gilbert is being investigated internally, but an agency spokesman couldn't comment or confirm the allegations because the case is open. An attempt to reach Alberta Gilbert was unsuccessful.

A temporary injunction was filed against James Gilbert in September — before he was charged criminally — because the teen is afraid of him and his persistent sexual advances.

"It's very stressful. It's very upsetting," the teen's mother said Thursday. "I'm constantly outside checking around. We worry about revenge or retaliation."

The Orlando Sentinel is not publishing the mother's name because it would identify her daughter.
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http://www.orlandosentinel.com