Pandora’s Blog

My favorite day of the week!

Let these 3 scumbags be a reminder to parents that monitoring software like PC Pandora is essential in today’s Internet world. Thankfully no real minors were hurt here as far as we know – who knows who these guys got to prior to being arrested. These guys do exist and they are out there. Know what your kids are doing online and who they are talking to. Don’t be a passive and removed parent – be a powerful and effective one with PC Pandora.

Internet predator arrested in VB
By Kenneth Fry, Press Argus-Courier Editor, June 11, 2008

A Stilwell, Okla., man planning to take his family on a summer vacation early Saturday morning was instead an inmate at the Crawford County Detention Center.

Less than four hours before he was scheduled to leave for the beaches of South Carolina, David Wayne Fuson, 34, was arrested for computer exploitation of a child, according to Chief Deputy Ron Brown of the Crawford County Sheriff’s Department.

Fuson, the father of three young daughters, had left work early to travel to Van Buren, expecting to have sex with a 14-year-old girl. Instead, the supervisor at Ms. Smith Bakery was arrested about 12:30 a.m. Saturday, just hours before the planned departure for South Carolina.

“He was surprised and somewhat confused,” Brown said of the arrest made without incident by the sheriff’s department and officers of the Van Buren Police Department.

Monday morning, Circuit Judge Gary R. Cottrell ruled there was enough evidence to hold Fuson and set his bond at $7,500. Fuson bonded from the detention center later that day.

Cottrell delayed Fuson’s arraignment to give Fuson the opportunity to hire an attorney rather than having one appointed from the pubic defender’s office.

Saturday’s arrest was the first for the Crawford County Sheriff’s Office Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force, which was recently awarded a $10,000 federal grant to reimburse the county for the costs of equipment and training.

“We want to deter Internet predators from coming to Crawford County to prey on our children,” Brown said.

Brown said a member of the ICAC task force had been in Internet contact with Fuson about three times since the end of May before contact was made again about 4 p.m. Friday.

Without divulging the context of the e-mails, Capt. Jimmy Damante said they were “sexually explicit enough to know he (Fuson) wanted to come to Van Buren to have sex with a minor.”

Fuson confessed to local authorities he thought he was meeting the juvenile for sex. He was in possession of condoms when he was arrested. A toy pistol also was found under the seat of Fuson’s truck, Brown said.

After Saturday’s arrest, investigators traveled to Stilwell when they seized a computer from Fuson’s trailer.

Deputies trolling for Web predators net Rio Rancho man
By Michael Herzenberg, June 12, 2008

RIO RANCHO, N. M. (KRQE) – A Rio Rancho man was arrested Wednesday in an online sting after he transmitted nude photos of himself to what he thought was a 13-year-old girl, according to the Curry County Sheriff’s Department.

Gregory Kenneth, 22, was arrest at his home in Rio Rancho. He remains in jail charged with three counts of child solicitation by an electronic device.

He was actually communicating with a curry county sheriff’s deputy.

The is the seventh time in six months the Curry County special task force has reported busting older men officers said were online attempting to prey on young children.

According to the criminal complaint Kenneth made contact with a deputy in late March and believing the deputy was 13 chatted about sex for more than a week.

Court documents alleged Kenneth used a webcam coupled to his computer to expose his genitalia to the deputy and asked the deputy through online chatting to perform sexual acts.

Kenneth even asked the purported girl to have her mother bring her to the Albuquerque metro area so they could meet in person, investigators alleged.

The Curry County investigators reported Kenneth claimed he was having sex with a 15-year-old in his Rio Rancho neighborhood. Rio Rancho police told KRQE News 13 they are looking into the validity of that statement.

Gregory is being held in the Sandoval County Detention Center awaiting transfer to Curry County.

Kenner detectives arrest June’s third online sex offender suspect
By Ramon Antono Vargas, The Times-Picayune, June 13, 2008

Keeping in step with what authorities say is a more active time of year for online sexual predators, a Kenner Police Department detective busted his third suspected online child sex offender for the month of June on Wednesday.

William. B Mercier, a 34-year-old from Bogue Chitto, Miss., faces at least one count of computer-aided solicitation for sexual purposes and one count of pornography involving juveniles for his suspected courting of detective Robert McGraw.

McGraw is a department veteran specialized in cyber crimes who had been posing as an underage Kenner girl in an online chat room on April 16, 2008, when someone using the screen name “brad_mercier2000″ began chatting with him.

As the back-and-forth played out, “brad_mercier2000″ asked McGraw’s juvenile female persona to have sex with him, authorities said.

Later, Mercier contacted the department’s underage persona via telephone and masturbated during the conversation, said Lt. Wayne McInnis, a department spokesman.

Mercier, who is the 46th suspected sex offender arrested by Kenner’s cyber crimes unit, also asked “her” to transmit naked pictures of “herself” to him online, McInnis said.

On Wednesday, members of the Mississippi Highway Patrol, Mississippi Bureau of Investigations and Lincoln County Sheriff’s office arrested Mercier at his home in Bogue Chitto.

Mercier couldn’t be reached for comment Friday. He is in the Lincoln County jail awaiting extradition to Kenner.

Mercier’s troubles, however, may not end there.

Kenner detectives believe Mercier had a similar month-long back-and-forth in May 2007 with Brian McGregor, another Kenner detective posing as an underage girl in an online chat room.

McInnis said Mercier cut off contact with McGregor but re-surfaced this April, when he started chatting with McGraw. Kenner police plan to bring additional charges in relation to the earlier online chats.

If Mercier is convicted on multiple charges, he will have to register as a sex offender and faces up to 25 years of hard labor in prison.

Mercier was McGraw’s third arrest in June. He led investigations that nabbed two other suspects for similar crimes this month.

Brett Lachmann, 28, of New Orleans, was arrested June 4 and booked with computer-aided solicitation for sexual purposes and indecent behavior with a juvenile. Kapil Agnihotri, 26, of Metairie, was arrested June 5 and booked with the same charges as Lachmann.

“It goes to show you how many people are doing this online,” McInnis said. “They’re out there.”

Summer is a busy season for sexual predators online, McInnis said. During the school year, a large number of children typically log into chat rooms in the evening — after school, after their extracurricular activities and after their homework.

However, kids have entire summer days to spend on a computer, chatting online, if they so choose.

Predators know that, McInnis said.

“They will stay online for more hours trying to make contact,” he said.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 18th, 2008 at 5:39 PM and is filed under Main. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.