MI- Six nabbed in sex sting send charges to trial

9-10-2009 Michigan Phase-I:

Six of the nine men snared in an undercover sting, targeting men who wanted sex with a minor, waived a preliminary exam Wednesday, sending their cases to trial.

Two defendants — ____, 53, of Detroit, and _____, 47, of Grand Rapids — already waived the hearing. They will appear Sept. 25 in Circuit Court for a pretrial hearing.

Another defendant, ____, is undergoing a mental exam to determine if he is competent to stand trial. Michigan Attorney General Mike Cox's office also added a third charge against the 40-year-old Clawson man of using the Internet to communicate with another to commit a crime for allegedly sending sexually explicit photographs to a person he thought was a minor.

The sting was the combined effort of Cox's office, the Livingston County Sheriff's Department and Perverted Justice, the latter of which has been involved in televised stings on "To Catch a Predator" with "Dateline NBC" and MSNBC.

Officials with the attorney general's office said as many as 150 people communicated with the decoys from Perverted Justice through various online communications, including Craigslist and instant messaging.

A spokesman with the attorney general's office said charges will be pursued against the people who engaged in the illegal chat, but who did not come to the house.

The nine defendants were the ones who came to a home in Oceola Township, east of Howell, where armed officers were waiting. Some of the defendants were arrested when they entered the decoy house while others were arrested at the parking lot of a nearby fast-food restaurant, police said.

The investigation began months ago and culminated in the three-day sting, which occurred between noon Aug. 14 and 9 a.m. Aug. 16.

The defendants who waived their preliminary exam on Wednesday are:

____, 49, of LaSalle Township, who is a security guard. His attorney, Steven Dodge, renewed his request to reduce his client's bond, citing ____' diabetic needs, but Judge Theresa Brennan again denied the request.

____, 37, of Eastpointe, who thought he was meeting a 14-year-old boy at the sting. At the last minute, ____ told police that he wanted to meet at a McDonald's restaurant, which is where police arrested him in the parking lot. Police said ____ is a disc jockey but his attorney said the man also is a licensed life insurance agent.

____, 50, of Flint, who is a postal carrier. He is the only defendant free on bond.

____, 24, of Flint, a Frito-Lay employee.

____, 29, of Rochester Hills, a software designer. His lawyer also asked for a bond reduction, but Brennan denied the request.

____, 29, of Columbus, Ohio, told police that he is an Indian citizen in the United States for about a month as a software programmer. He told police that he took a cab to the decoy home after taking a bus from Columbus to Detroit.

..Source.. by Lisa Roose-Church • DAILY PRESS & ARGUS