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Tuesday February 20 12:00 AM EST

Police Crack Down On Cyber Sex Criminals

Local Police Target Internet Chat Rooms

Xenia police detective Alonzo Wilson helps stop cyber crime on the Internet.

WLWT Eyewitness News 5 reporter Ryan Owens spent some time with Wilson as he entered chat rooms on America Online. Wilson went into a "Special Interests" chat room called "Daddies Home Alone."

Wilson played the part of a 14-year-old girl who claimed that she had been suspended from school. Within seconds, a man who claimed that he was 38 years old sent the girl instant messages.

Minutes later, the man sent explicit pictures of himself.

"They get aggressive and they will send pictures that are explicit pictures of themselves or maybe other kids in sexual acts to see how they're going to respond to that," Wilson said.

The girl responded, telling the man that she was a virgin. He said that he would teach her everything that she needs to know. Within five minutes, Owens reported, the man tried to set up a meeting with the child, who was roughly one-third his age.

"They are pedophiles and they want kids," Wilson said.

Wilson and his partner, Darrin Barlow, want to stop pedophiles. Both men make up the Internet protection unit of the Xenia Police Department.

"Since March 8, 2000, we've arrested 16 travelers – the guys coming to meet girls for sex," Barlow said.

Among the arrested were a 19-year-old day-care worker, a high school girls' basketball coach and a 60-year-old grandfather.

Barlow said some of those arrested came from as far away as Texas, Pennsylvania and Massachusetts.

Perhaps their most high-profile catch came from Cincinnati. Allen Pruett, 51, known as "Jim Fox" to listeners of the WUBE, B-105 morning show, was arrested in April 2000. His arrest was the first for the Internet protection unit.

The unit's most recent arrest occurred Saturday. Police said that David Akers, 48, had driven 150 miles from Lexington, Ky., to a Xenia hotel to meet a 14-year-old girl named Samantha. But "Samantha" was a Xenia police officer.

"Samantha" was really Barlow. He said that he spent about a month and a half chatting online with Akers.

"He thought he was going to meet a 14-year-old juvenile girl for some very explicit sex acts," Barlow said. "He'd already gotten a room at (the) hotel and planned to meet her in the lobby."

Police found a plastic bag containing condoms and lubricant inside Akers' pickup truck. He had promised "Samantha" that he would bring both items.

The Kentucky businessman also promised the girl that he was divorced. In reality, Owens reported, Akers lives in Lexington with his wife and children.

Catching the so-called travelers and putting them in the Greene County jail is the easy part, Owens said. What is often much harder is making the charges stick. Under current Ohio law, defense attorneys can argue that it is not a crime because there was no victim.

"Show the 14-year-old victim, 12-year-old victim, whatever, then maybe you've got an offense," Cincinnati attorney Stew Matthews said.

Matthews represented Fox, who accepted a plea agreement to avoid jail time. But Matthews said that if his case had gone to trial, Fox might have won.

"My feeling was, 'Whatever he did, he'll admit to, but show me the girl,'" Matthews said. "There was no girl, and I think that was a very important part of the particular offense."

Ohio's statute on solicitation is about as old as the law books in which it is written, Owens reported. But a new state law takes effect next month that closes the legal loophole. The new law says that solicitation is a crime even if "the other person is a law enforcement officer posing as a person who is less than 13 years of age."

Police claim that they are dealing with the same pedophiles with whom they used to deal. Now they are able to talk to children a lot longer without being seen.

But two detectives on one computer, in the basement of a small Tri-State area police department, believe that new law will allow them to arrest more suspects like Akers, and make cyberspace a safer space.

-- (Beware@of.pedophiles), February 21, 2001