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[Posted on Thur, Feb 16 2006]
Alleged sexual predator arrested outside librarySource: Wheeling Countryside
pioneerlocal.com
February 16, 2006
By KIMBERLY FORNEK
A 19-year-old Buffalo Grove man was arrested last week for allegedly soliciting sex on the Internet from someone he thought was a 13-year-old girl.
Daniel W. Franks, of 849 Miller Lane, No. 202, was charged with one count of indecent solicitation of a child after police found him waiting in a gray 1988 Honda Civic on Dunton Avenue outside the Arlington Heights Memorial Library at about 1:30 a.m. Feb. 9. During questioning at the police station, Franks told police he was expecting to meet a 13-year-old girl for sex, someone with whom he had communicated that night on the Internet, said Arlington Heights Police Cmdr. Jerry Lambert.
The Arlington Heights Police were alerted to the arranged meeting by Perverted Justice, a civilian watchdog group formed to expose adults who, through computer Internet chat rooms, contact underage children for sexual purposes.
In an attempt to expose sexual predators, a volunteer for the organization earlier that night had an e-mail conversation with someone whose e-mail address was hornyusmc, Lambert said. In those conversations, the Perverted Justice member described herself as a 13-year-old girl. When the e-mailer told the PJ volunteer he lived in Buffalo Grove, the volunteer replied that she lived near Arlington Heights, Lambert said. The volunteer actually was in Sausalito, Calif., Lambert said.
"He asked if she was willing to have sex with him," Lambert said. Franks also allegedly made sexually explicit comments to the volunteer and e-mailed nude photos of himself engaged in a sexual act, Lambert said. "They made arrangements to meet at the Arlington Heights library."
The volunteer then contacted the Arlington Heights Police to alert them to the meeting and provided a description of the suspect.
Police officers found Franks outside the library at 500 N. Dunton Ave. After his arrest, they confiscated the personal computer from his home and sent it to the Regional Computer Forensic Laboratory in Chicago where federal experts will investigate it for evidence of other crimes, Lambert said.
As of Monday, Franks was held in custody on $100,000 bond. He is scheduled to appear in court in Rolling Meadows at 9 a.m. March 7.
[Original Article on the Wheeling Countryside web site ]