In the News

Law Targets Internet Sexual Predators

By Tim Bryant
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
December 30, 2002

Missouri authorities, who have had limited success in getting convictions in online sex cases, have a new tool aimed directly at sexual predators who troll the Internet in search of child victims.

A new state law establishes a felony crime of enticement for people 21 and older who use the Internet to lure a child under 15 "for the purpose of engaging in sexual conduct."

The law, effective Aug. 28, applies even if the person on the receiving end of a pedophile's computerized come-on is "a peace officer masquerading as a minor."

In St. Louis and elsewhere, police are more frequently visiting Internet chat rooms, where detectives may present themselves as young girls.

In the past, St. Louis prosecutors have filed attempted sexual sodomy and rape charges against adults accused of using chat rooms to arrange meetings with 13-year-old girls when, in fact, it was police Detective Benjamin Bender.

But St. Louis prosecutors had no convictions in two tries.

On Dec. 10, Circuit Judge Steven Ohmer found Steven J. Greer, a former reserve police officer in Florissant, not guilty of attempted statutory sodomy and attempted statutory rape. Greer was accused of trying to contact someone he believed was 13-year-old "Brittany" from a chat room.

In January, Circuit Judge Michael David acquitted Jason Vijil, a former St. Louis University soccer player, of similar charges.

In both cases, the judges ruled that the defendants never took a "substantial step" toward carrying out the sex acts they had urged in Internet chat room conversations.

Assistant Circuit Attorney Ed Postawko, who heads his office's sex crimes unit, said he is "certainly" looking for cases to prosecute under the new law. None is pending.

He noted that to get a conviction under the new law, prosecutors still must prove a defendant's intent to carry out the crimes charged. Postawko acknowledged that some prosecutors believe the state's attempted statutory sodomy law is inappropriate in cases arising from activities online.

"Now, with this specific law on the books, there is no disputing what this law is for," he said.

Probably the most active state jurisdiction in pursuing such cases is rural Livingston County, in western Missouri. There, Sheriff Steve Cox said he has made arrests in nearly a dozen such cases.

Some arrests have led to charges and findings of guilt. Among those charged are a Sedalia, Mo., school official and a commander at Wentworth Military Academy in Lexington, Mo.

In mid-December, the Morgan County prosecuting attorney, Stephen Concannon, landed in Cox's net. Concannon resigned one week after Attorney General Jay Nixon sought his ouster for allegedly using his office telephone to solicit sexual favors in return for legal services.

Nixon's office said Concannon asked an undercover deputy - posing as the woman - to call him at the prosecutor's office, then asked her for sex in exchange for providing legal help in her divorce.

Concannon arranged to meet the woman at a Wal-Mart parking lot in Chillicothe, Mo., but instead was confronted by Livingston County sheriff's officers, Nixon said.

Cox said a lack of manpower in his small department prevents him from making more cases and using the new enticement law.

He called the new law "an excellent tool."

"It just gives law enforcement that much more of a bite to protect the kids," said Cox, adding that even the best parents are unable to monitor their children's activities constantly.

Men who sometimes travel hundreds of miles to have sex with young girls they met online are called "travelers" by the FBI. Last year, the agency opened a record 1,559 cases against alleged predators under its Innocent Images Initiative.

A report last year from the University of New Hampshire said nearly one child in five who goes online regularly is approached by a stranger for sex. The study tracked the experiences of 1,501 children 10 to 17 years old. A fourth of the children were exposed to unwanted pornography or other sexually explicit materials, and 6 percent were threatened or harassed.

Illinois has no Internet enticement law, but its law banning solicitation of a minor for sex has the same effect.

On March 1, 2001, Kevin Coan, then Republican director of the St. Louis Election Board, was arrested and accused of trying to solicit sex from a person he thought was a 14-year-old girl. The person Coan allegedly had been contacting online was an Alton police officer. Coan, whose case is pending, is accused of offering to pay the fictitious girl $75 for sex and arranging to meet her at a market in Upper Alton.

Cox said he believes that a defendant's appearance at such an arranged spot is enough to prove guilt. That was the claim against the military academy official accused of checking into a motel to meet a 14-year-old girl who, in fact, was Cox at the receiving end of the defendant's e-mailed solicitations.

The Wentworth official pleaded guilty this year and got an eight-year prison sentence for attempted statutory rape and attempted statutory sodomy, Cox said.

In November, a Pettis County judge found the Sedalia school official not guilty of four felony charges that he used the Internet to proposition a person he believed was a 13-year-old girl who really was Cox.

The judge based his ruling on the fact that the school official, 39, was a no-show for his supposed meeting with the girl at a motel in Chillicothe.

One of the official's lawyers said he hopes his client gets probation when he is sentenced in January on misdemeanor charges of attempting to commit sexual misconduct involving a child.

The lawyer, Christopher McHugh, of Wichita, Kan., said Missouri is among a growing number of states with an Internet enticement law. Regardless, proving such cases is difficult, McHugh said.

"What you have to show is that there is a substantial step toward committing the crime," McHugh said. "And you have to establish intent to commit the crime."

He added: "No matter how good you are as an investigator, (a suspect) just going to a certain spot is not the same thing as saying attempted rape. I think we have to be very careful not to convict people of pretending and role playing."

Postawko said even with the new law, authorities will have to remain on their toes.

"The technology is changing so fast, it's really hard to guess how it's going to be used," he said.

In the last decade, chat rooms have replaced the telephone as a main communication link among kids, Postawko said. "For all we know, something will happen to make that form of communication obsolete, and criminals will have a new way to go."