Authorities use Internet to catch suspects who target children

CLAYTON, Mo. -- Six men have been charged in a St. Louis County Internet sting of suspected sex predators, with prosecutors preparing charges against others.

Detectives are posing as children on the computer, but they say it's the adult suspects on the other end who are arranging meetings.

Police arrested Anil Kumar, 34, of Creve Coeur in a parking lot on Aug. 14 last year. They said he had arranged to meet a 13-year-old girl there, though he'd actually been chatting with a detective posing as a child. He had a bra and perfume with him, and had engaged in computer chat about a sexual encounter.

Kumar is scheduled in court on Oct. 6 to face charges of third-degree sexual misconduct. Lawyer Raymond Bolourtchi called his client "absolutely innocent."

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports police in the area have been posing as young children on the Internet for at least two years. So far, however, few cases developed from these stings have been tried.

Two Alton, Ill., cases have resulted in guilty pleas. In St. Louis, judges last year acquitted two defendants because they had never taken a "substantial step" toward carrying out the sex acts they talked about in Internet conversations.

Prosecutors in St. Louis County believe they'll get convictions. They said all six defendants were arrested at a rendezvous place each man chose.

Jason Roussin, 20, of Valley Park, allegedly showed up at a motel in Fenton on March 18 with a condom. Roussin had been chatting on the computer for six days with a detective pretending to be a 13-year-old girl, and asked if she would meet at that time and place for sex, according to a criminal complaint.

Roussin is charged with first-degree attempted statutory rape and first-degree attempted statutory sodomy.

That Roussin had a condom "is hardly a step toward commission of a crime," said his lawyer, Susan K. Roach. She may try to prove Roussin was a victim of police entrapment and illegal search and seizure.

Many eyes will be on the Circuit Court in St. Louis County to see how the cases turn out, police and prosecutors say.

A state law enacted last year establishes a felony crime of enticement for people 21 and older who use the Internet to lure a child under 15 "for the purpose of engaging in sexual conduct."

The law has given county police detectives the confidence to put hundreds of hours into the sting, said Sgt. Rick Battelle, county commander of the special investigations unit. Right now, the stings are a majority of the unit's workload, he said.

Police said they're troubled by how many adults seem to be using chat rooms and personal messaging to lure children into sex, and how quickly their numbers seem to be growing. Most seem to be men looking for girls, they said. A detective who logs on to a chat room using a feminine name is typically inundated with private greetings called instant messages.

Parents can help police by not giving their children unsupervised access to the computer, Battelle said.

"Parents need to be aware what their child is doing online," he said. "Sexual predators are out there waiting for these young kids."