MI- Internet sting

3-12-2008 Michigan: (Phase-I)

Operation nabs 3 area men on sex charges

VAN BUREN TWP. — Three Downriver residents were among 27 men arrested over the weekend in an Internet sexual predator sting operation.

_____, 20, of Woodhaven; _____, 41, of Southgate; and _____, 44, of Allen Park all are charged with child sexually abusive activity and using a computer to communicate with another to commit a crime.

If convicted, they face up to 20 years in prison. The men were arraigned at 34th District Court and are being held on $50,000 cash bonds. They are due back in court next Wednesday for a preliminary examination of the evidence against them.

The 27 men — 26 from Michigan and one from New Jersey — were caught chatting online with a person they thought was either an underage teenage boy or girl. During the chats, the men were invited to meet the child at an unoccupied home in Van Buren Township.

The men are between the ages of 19 and 57.

When they arrived, Van Buren Township police officers and Wayne County Sheriff's Department deputies were there to greet and arrest them.

The undercover officers, who worked in connection with the Michigan Attorney General's Office, scheduled different times for the men to show up.

Four men came via taxi, while another was dropped off by his sister. One biked miles in the 15-degree weather and another drove to the house on a flat tire that was shredded and worn to the rim by the time he arrived.

To law enforcement, that reinforces their belief that some men will go to extremes to set up a sexual tryst with a child.

"Even with the level of attention that these kinds of stings attract, the fact that so many men are still lining up to meet children for sex over the Internet should send shockwaves through the home of any parent," Wayne County Sheriff Warren Evans said in a press release.

The arrests were the result of a collaborative effort that had been in the works since October. A group that has attained national fame for being featured on the hit show "Dateline NBC: To Catch A Predator" was behind these arrests, as well.

Volunteers with Perverted-Justice.com posed as children in online chat rooms and carried on the conversations with the men. A video-audio surveillance company, Investigative Mechanics, also monitored the chats.

Van Buren police Capt. Greg Laurain said the arrests should send "a clear message that we are watching those who would put children in danger."

"We used the dark side of the Internet to do that," he said. "I think the fact that these guys think they can still get away with this stuff is pretty amazing."

Two men circled the house, but never got out of their vehicles. They, too, were arrested.

"At that point, we already have them on the Internet chat material," Laurain said. "The fact that these guys showed up to the house is just icing on the cake. They don't need to go into the house to be arrested."

Laurain said most of the suspects denied they were there for sex. All of the men were searched and had their vehicles searched, if they arrived in one.

Condoms were found on a number of the men, Laurain said. One even brought an overnight bag, he said.

This sting was Perverted Justice's fifth largest in the number of arrests, according to the group's Web site.

In addition to the 27 who were arrested, several other men who chatted online with the decoys also are expected to be charged for sending sexually explicit material to someone they believed to be a child.

"Phase two is expected to arrest as many as, if not more than, the number of individuals arrested in phase one, bringing the total number of arrests to more than 50," Michigan Attorney General Mike Cox said in a press release.

"Law enforcement has a clear choice in dealing with the danger of Internet predators — either react after a child has been subjected to an assault or be proactive and intervene before they can harm a child. For us, this is an easy choice." ..News Source.. by Staff Writer Jason Alley