A man recently released from prison was arrested Wednesday for allegedly propositioning a law enforcement officer posing as a 13-year-old girl on the Internet.
The 23-year-old man was booked into the Salt Lake County Jail by the Utah Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force for investigation of enticing a minor over the Internet.
Ken Wallentine, chief of law enforcement for the state Attorney General's Office, said while there have been several similar arrests recently, this one was particularly valuable because it took a man with a violent criminal history off the street.
"He has shown a capacity and a propensity to commit violent crimes with a gun. Now he's not turning to a pharmacy or gas station. He was looking for a 13-year-old girl," Wallentine said. "It's more than gratifying, it's a job well done for my people."
The man was sentenced to one to 15 years in prison in January of 2003 after pleading guilty to armed robbery, Wallentine said. He was released on parole seven months ago.
Wednesday night he was allegedly in a chat room and struck up a conversation with someone he thought was a 13-year-old girl whose parents had gone to bed.
"This guy was unrestrained in his language and clarity of what he wanted," Wallentine said. "He was explicit, direct and very pornographic in his language."
The man told the undercover officer to meet him at a church near his West Valley house, Wallentine said. Officers kept surveillance on the man as he waited at the church.
Moments after he left the church believing he had been stood up, police pulled him over and arrested him.
Because of the recent media attention on the number of people arrested for trying to arrange meetings with supposed 13-year-old girls, Wallentine admitted he had been asked recently whether posing as a 13-year-old would be a giveaway.
"You would think (the perpetrators) would catch on," he said. "We don't seem to be slowing down."
Of the three major chat room providers, Wallentine said his detectives determined that half to two-thirds of people using them from after school to the late night hours are people representing themselves as 13 and 14 year old girls.
Wallentine said if he had the manpower to put more undercover detectives in chat rooms he would most likely catch even more criminals.
"It's remarkable every time we cast our bread upon on the waters one or more perpetrators pop up," he said.
Wallentine is grateful nothing happened to a juvenile in this case and hopes this incident might serve as a reminder to them to be careful because they don't always know who they're talking to in chat rooms.
E-mail: preavy@desnews.com