August 17, 2009

HOWELL - Attorney General Mike Cox's office and Livingston County Sheriff Robert Bezotte today announced the results of an undercover Internet child predator sting that took place in Howell from August 14 to August 16.  The sting resulted in the immediate arrest of nine men who attempted to engage in sexual activity after targeting who they thought were children online. 

The predators were arrested by agents from the Attorney General's office and Livingston County Sheriff Deputies at or near a decoy home in the Howell area after engaging in sexually explicit Internet chats with undercover agents posing as children. 

All defendants who traveled to have sex with a child were charged with Child Sexually Abusive Activity and a similar charge of using a computer to commit that offense, both felonies.  Additional counts are charged if the defendant sent pornographic images to the undercover agents.  The Attorney General's office will handle the prosecutions in court.

Additional arrests are likely for individuals who transmitted sexually explicit material, but did not travel to the decoy location.

"The message for predators is loud and clear," said Cox.  "We are watching.  If you attempt to target a child, we will take you offline."

Prior to this operation, Cox's office had already arrested 236 Internet predators after creating one of the first Internet child protection units in the nation.

The defendants from this operation are all males, ranging in age from 24 to 53.  Over half of the nine are from Southeastern Michigan, while one came from Grand Rapids and the other from Columbus, Ohio.  The defendants were all willing to travel for sex with a child despite long distances or lack of personal transportation, with two taking cabs to the location. 

Many predators mentioned in their chats that they feared being caught in a sting situation and declined to come to the home, asking to meet at near by locations instead.  This change in tactics indicates that previous Attorney General stings have had an effect on predators who in the previous stings regularly and boldly entered decoy homes with the intent to abuse children.  However, Attorney General Cox notes that predator chat activity online remained very active and aggressive during this operation, so parents must take the lead role in monitoring their children's Internet activities to keep them safe.

            "This is a reminder for parents that the Internet is being used by predators to target our children," said Cox.  "Parents must be monitoring what their kids are doing online and talk often with them about the dangers of communicating with people they don't know and trust."

Those arrested are:

• ·     George William Allen, 53, of Detroit; a retired City of Detroit police officer who counseled the undercover agent on how to avoid saving chat logs and threatened to kill himself if turned in.  Allen was arrested at a nearby fast food restaurant parking lot.

• ·     John Deleo Custer, 40, of Clawson; a grocery store clerk who took a cab from Oakland County to the decoy location, later arriving at the home on foot.  He was arrested outside the home.

• ·     Jason Jerome Lombardo, 37, of Eastpointe; a music D.J., was arrested by officers at a fast-food restaurant parking lot.

• ·     Michael Thomas Krauss, 49, of LaSalle (Monroe County); a security guard who was arrested upon entering the decoy home.

• ·     Dipankar Roy, 29, of Columbus, Ohio; reported that he is an Indian citizen in the United States for about a month as a software programmer.  Reported that he took a cab to the decoy home after taking a bus from Columbus to Detroit.

• ·     Timothy John Fitzhugh, 47, of Grand Rapids; also arrested by authorities at a fast-food restaurant parking lot while carrying condoms, lubricant and pornographic videos.

• ·     Robert Joseph Smith, 24, of Flint.

• ·     Ashish Jain, 29, of Rochester Hills.

• ·     Robert Alan Blake, 50, of Flint.

Arraignment of the defendants, which started over the weekend, should be completed today at the 53^rd District Court in Howell.  Bond for each will likely by set at $200,000 and the defendants may not be online or have unsupervised contact with minors.  Hearing dates will be determined later today.

Other partners in the operation included Perverted Justice, a non-profit organization which specializes in identifying online predators, and Investigative Mechanics, Inc., which outfitted the decoy house and neighborhood with state-of-the-art video and audio surveillance equipment. 

"I want to thank Sheriff Bezotte and the Livingston County Sheriff's Office for their efforts," Cox said.

Citizens can report suspected Internet child predators by calling the Attorney General's Child and Public Protection Unit at (313) 456-0180.  Parents and schools may also contact the Attorney General's office for information on our award-winning educational program, the Michigan Cyber Safety Initiative (Michigan CSI), which has been taught to more than 400,000 Michigan children. 

A criminal charge is merely an accusation, and defendants are presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty.

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