Not everyone on the internet is who he or she appears to be. It is a lesson learned the hard way for the men and women caught in undercover online stings conducted by law enforcement agents in an effort to crack down on child predators. That young teen on the other end of a sexually explicit chat may not be an eager teenager at all, but rather a brawny sheriff's deputy or an Oklahoma Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) task force member.
A Marlow man was arrested late last week as a result of such a sting. Dustin Crump, 27, is accused of chatting online and texting with a person he believed to be a 15-year-old girl, but who was really Lt. Adam Flowers, a grown man and deputy with the Canadian County Sheriff's Office working as an undercover decoy.
The sexually explicit nature of Crump's conversations with the "girl," and that he allegedly sent explicit photos of himself to someone he believed to be a minor would have been enough for deputies to make an arrest. However, Crump is accused of taking it a step further, arranging to meet the "girl" for sex.
When Crump showed up at the designated meeting place on Friday, he soon discovered that there was no girl--only Canadian County Sheriff Randall Edwards and his deputies, who arrested the man on a complaint of online solicitation of a minor.
A court records search shows that prior to this incident, Crump's only "criminal history" was a speeding ticket. Now, he is arrested and booked into the Canadian County jail, where he is held on $50,000 for a felony sex crime. Soliciting Sexual Conduct or Communication with a Minor by Use of Technology is punishable by a maximum of 10 years in prison and a $10,000 fine. Furthermore, it is a Level 2 sex offense which mandates sex offender registration for 25 years.
In some cases around the nation, people caught in online stings have tried to use a defense strategy that claims that since there was no victim, there was no crime. In these cases, the defendant argues that he or she could not possibly be convicted of inappropriate communication with a minor, because there was no minor involved--only an adult posing as a minor. However, Oklahoma law explicitly excludes this defense.
Title 21 Section 1040.13a of the state criminal code describes the crime and penalty for soliciting minors online, and it includes this stipulation:
"The fact that an undercover operative or law enforcement officer was involved in the detection and investigation of an offense pursuant to this section shall not constitute a defense to a prosecution under this section."
When a person sends sexually explicit communication or images to a minor, or someone believed to be a minor, there are a number of crimes with which he or she may be charged. These can include lewd or indecent proposals or acts to a child under 16, soliciting minors by use of technology, and violation of the Oklahoma Computer Crimes Act. Learn more about internet sex crimes here.
