f13.net forums - It Happens Yet Again

This is another one that baffles my mind:

Quote

Court rules sting legal
A lawyer will be sentenced for using a computer to entice a supposed 14-year-old.
By TONY RIZZO
The Kansas City Star
She said her name was Lisa. She was 14 and thought a sexual encounter with an older man would be “cool.”

Federal prosecutors alleged that Mission Hills lawyer Jan Helder Jr. was eager to oblige her. When he got up from his computer keyboard and drove to Platte County to meet her, they charged him with committing a crime. A jury agreed and found Helder guilty of attempting to entice a minor to engage in illegal sexual activity.

But Lisa was actually an undercover police officer, and because the incident did not involve a real child, a Kansas City federal judge found that the crime was a “legal impossibility” and threw out the jury’s conviction.

On Monday, a three-judge federal appeals court panel reversed U.S. District Judge Dean Whipple and ordered the case against Helder re-instated so he can be sentenced.

“Obviously, we’re disappointed,” said Helder’s attorney, J.R. Hobbs.

The defense is studying the ruling to determine whether there are grounds to seek a re-hearing by the full court. Hobbs said the defense also would begin preparing for Helder’s sentencing. He faces five to 30 years in prison.

The ruling was a first for the St. Louis-based 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, and it cleared the way for prosecutors to continue with cases against those caught in Internet stings in this area.

Bradley Schlozman, U.S. attorney for the Western District of Missouri, said he was pleased with the decision. His office has about 20 pending cases that the decision affected, he said.

Schlozman said his office was preparing a motion to have Helder detained pending sentencing.

“This office has made it a priority to pursue these kinds of cases,” Schlozman said.

Other appeals courts across the country had reached similar conclusions in earlier rulings, and the 8th Circuit cited them in Monday’s decision.

Whipple cited the absence of a ruling by the 8th Circuit when he acquitted Helder in August 2005.

Whipple said nothing in the law addressed the government’s contention that because Helder believed he was communicating with a 14-year-old girl, he was guilty.

“Nowhere in the statute does the word ‘belief” appear,” Whipple wrote. “To the contrary, the statute plainly states that the person being enticed must be an ‘individual who has not attained the age of 18 years.’ The statute is unambiguous on this point.”

Kansas and Missouri state laws specify that when a police officer pretends to be a minor, that can’t be used as a defense.

Whipple noted in his decision that Missouri legislators had fixed what he termed the “glaring problem” in the federal law.

After Whipple acquitted Helder, Platte County Prosecutor Eric Zahnd filed a state charge of child enticement against Helder.

“We wanted to make it clear that we will continue to hunt down and prosecute these criminals,” he said.

Zahnd said that Whipple’s decision did not affect ongoing state prosecutions and that Monday’s court of appeals decision would not affect the state prosecution of Helder.

“Regardless of how the federal case comes out, this man will be brought to justice,” Zahnd said.

If convicted of the state charge, Helder faces a maximum sentence of seven years. But Zahnd noted Missouri lawmakers this year amended the punishment to the same five- to 30-year range called for by the federal statute.

According to court documents and trial testimony, Helder used his office computer to access a chat room using the screen name “trialkc.”

An undercover Platte County deputy sheriff using the screen name “lisa_mo_13” entered the chat room and within 10 minutes received an instant message from “trialkc.” Eventually the chat turned to topics such as her sexual experience and when her mother was home.

“Lisa” gave her address to “trialkc” and a short time later officers saw Helder drive through the apartment complex, but he saw the detectives and drove away. Officers later questioned Helder and obtained evidence from his office computer.

In ruling against Helder on Monday, the 8th Circuit judges borrowed from another court’s earlier decision comparing the situation with the attempted solicitation of a prostitute who turns out to be an undercover police officer.

The court found that it was reasonable for the jury to infer that the defendant “knowingly sought sexual activity, and knowingly sought it with a minor.”

“That he was mistaken in his knowledge is irrelevant,” according to the decision.

http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/14908945.htm

But what gets me is the preditors that are in our games. I know someone from UO, 50 year old female that role-plays an preys on young males. She has even had a 17 year old player she role-played with, meet her irl, when he was on a school trip to have sex with her. I think this is a issue that gets over looked a lot, and parents are not aware of this.