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Child predator sting yields 7 arrests
By Tim Sturrock - tsturrock@macon.com
Seven men arrested in Twiggs County sting Seven arrested in sting Seven men have been arrested in a sting operation designed to nab child Internet predators by using volunteers posing as teenage girls, Twiggs County sheriff's officials said Thursday.
Deputies teamed up with a group called Perverted Justice, whose volunteers posed as 13- and 14-year-old girls on Web sites such as Yahoo.com and Myspace.com.
Deputies arrested Shaharyar Rashid, 24, of Marietta; Jeffrey F. Pansino, 36, Doraville; James Ronald Cosby, 62, Douglasville; Robert Elton Hill, 64, Hazlehurst; Kenneth Mack Smith, 54, Villa Rica; Casey Stephen Dykes, 26, Cochran; and Daniel Eric Bowman, 30, Covington.
The men are charged with a variety of violations such as computer child exploitation online and obscene Internet contact with a child. Bowman was a former high school coach, and Hill was a youth mentor at a church, investigators said.
From March until July 1, deputies arrested the men, three of whom went to Twiggs County believing they were going to meet with children but were met by law enforcement instead, Sheriff Darren Mitchum said.
Investigators said they didn't publicize the arrests initially because they were working on an eighth case in which a man still has not been arrested. The local law enforcement agencies where the men live were notified, he said.
Mitchum said deputies began their investigation in February and hope the operation is a deterrent.
"You better know what you're dealing with because it may not be a child - it may be us you're talking to," he said. "We're going to protect the children in Twiggs County any way that we can."
Mitchum said when he came into office in 2005 his investigators didn't know how to work on a case like this, but they learned during this investigation.
The accused all initiated conversations about sex with the volunteers, and Mitchum said he had no problems with how the men were deceived.
"If they're willing to drive from their homes 80, 100 miles away to another place supposedly to meet what they believe is a 13-year-old child to have sexual relations with them they stepped right into it," he said.
Mitchum said he discussed the sting with Dublin Judicial Circuit District Attorney Craig Fraser before going forward with it. Perverted Justice is a nonprofit watchdog group that works with "Dateline NBC's" television series titled "To Catch a Predator."
Mitchum said seeking out Internet predators is important to decreasing Internet-related sex crimes.
"It's going on every day and if we sit back and wait for someone to complain about it it may be too late," he said.
To contact writer Tim Sturrock, call 744-4347.
***** CHARGES IN THE CASE According to the Twiggs County Sheriff's Office, the following have been charged in the case:
Shaharyar Rashid, 24, of Marietta, was arrested March 3 and is charged with criminal solicitation, criminal attempt to commit child molestation, electronically furnishing obscene material to minors, enticing a child for indecent purposes and violation of the computer pornography and child exploitation act of 1999.
Jeffrey F. Pansino, 36, of Doraville, was arrested June 22 and is charged with four counts of computer child exploitation online, three counts of obscene Internet contact with a child, two counts of electronically furnishing obscene material to a minor, one count of criminal attempt to commit child molestation and one count of criminal attempt to commit aggravated child molestation.
James Ronald Cosby, 62, of Douglasville, was arrested July 1 and is charged with two counts of computer child exploitation online, one count of obscene Internet contact with a child and one count of criminal attempt to commit child molestation.
Robert Elton Hill, 64, of Hazlehurst, was arrested April 27 and is charged with 11 counts of computer child exploitation online, three counts of obscene Internet contact with a child and one count of electronically furnishing obscene material to a minor.
Kenneth Mack Smith, 54, of Villa Rica, was arrested April 21 and is charged with three counts of computer child exploitation online, three counts of obscene Internet contact with a child and one count of electronically furnishing obscene material to a minor.
Casey Stephen Dykes, 26, of Cochran, was arrested May 1 and is charged with six counts of computer child exploitation online and two counts obscene Internet contact with a child.
Daniel Eric Bowman, 30, of Covington was arrested May 1 and charged with two counts of computer child exploitation online and two counts of obscene Internet contact with a child.
