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Online cops prey on those who prey on children

By ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published November 25, 2006

JACKSONVILLE - Alan Naj sent explicit online messages about sexual practices to 15-year-old Leslee Sweet, e-mailed her a video of him masturbating, bought her Victoria's Secret panties and taught her how to encrypt sensitive computer files.

For about a month, Naj, 46, and "lesleesweet15" (her screen name) chatted online. He frequently talked about sex and asked about her experiences.

They agreed to meet at a Jacksonville mall in January. Naj drove from Broward County bearing gifts, including sexy underwear and a teddy bear, and hoped to have sex with the girl.

But Leslee wasn't there. Naj, a computer-assisted designer, was met by investigators with the Florida attorney general's Child Predator CyberCrime Unit.

"Leslee" was a fictional teenager. Naj had been chatting with a 33-year-old male investigator.

Crist started unit

So far, 29 men have been apprehended by the unit started by Attorney General Charlie Crist, was elected this month as Florida's next governor. The unit hunts people like Naj, who travel to have sex with minors or who buy, sell and trade child pornography over the Internet.

"This unit is able to apprehend these monsters before they make contact with children," Crist said. "We started it because there was an obvious problem because of children and the Internet. We want to do everything we can to protect Florida's children."

Crist said he has already discussed the unit with Bill McCollum, the attorney general-elect, who said during the campaign that it would be his top priority. Crist said he would like to see the unit grow from a staff of nine to about 52 and open additional offices in Orlando, Tampa, Fort Lauderdale, Tallahassee, Fort Myers and Pensacola.

"Bill is very focused on it," Crist said.

The CyberCrime Unit, which has operated for about a year in a downtown Jacksonville office, displays a rogues' gallery of the men it has arrested. They include a Navy commander, a lawyer, a National Guard recruiter, a police detective, a karate instructor, a restaurant manager and a software engineer.

About 60 percent of them were buying, selling or trading child pornography. Forty percent traveled intending to meet a child for sex, said Maureen Horkan, the unit's director.

Even babies, toddlers

With just four investigators, the CyberCrime Unit can't possibly track all of the thousands of child pornographers on the Internet operating in Florida. So it tries to go after the worst of the worst.

Horkan has an intense dislike for people who use babies and toddlers in pornography.

"Child pornography is not largely 16-year-olds. It is largely little girls or boys, toddlers. Tiny babies are being molested," she said. "Most people would vomit to see the stuff they have."

The unit has sophisticated computer programs and experienced investigators, most of whom did the same work in local law enforcement agencies.

Florida law prohibits the use of a computer service to "seduce, solicit, lure or entice" a child, or someone believed to be child. It also prohibits the transmission of "an image, information, or data that is harmful to minors."

The Florida Supreme Court ruled unanimously Nov. 16 that both laws are constitutional.

The unit works closely with other law enforcement agencies.

Internet sexual crime is pervasive. It's usually only minutes after an investigator enters a chat room as a minor that he or she is contacted by adult men.

A study released this year by the Crimes Against Children Research Center at the University of New Hampshire showed that one in seven children on the Internet received unwanted sexual solicitations during the past year. Four percent of all youths reported being asked to meet someone in person.

The Internet is a place, "no different than the mall or school cafeteria ... and parents are largely sending them out there alone," Horkan said.

No probation this time

At a sentencing hearing in Duval Circuit Court this month, Naj expressed remorse and pleaded for probation.

He had already paid dearly for his mistake, he told Judge Henry E. Davis. He said he was forced to cut off contact with his 16-year-old daughter, his wife planned to divorce him and he had lost friends and business contracts.

"In this case, there was a fictional victim," argued Jason Porter, Naj's defense attorney.

Davis sentenced Naj to four years in prison and five years of sexual offender probation. Horkan was pleased, because some of the cases prosecuted have ended with the offender walking away with probation.

"Before he had a victim, the police stopped him," she said in court. "You make a choice to engage in criminal conduct."

[Last modified November 25, 2006, 00:13:19]