Salt Lake Tribune

During his Internet chats with a 13-year-old, a Utah man expressed concern that the girl might really be a cop, authorities say. However, they say, after six months of online bantering, much of it sexual, and one telephone conversation, the man was ready to meet the teen in person. Investigators say Michael James McBeth arranged to rendezvous with the girl Tuesday in the parking lot of a Lehi grocery store. When he arrived, McBeth was confronted by members of the Utah County Sex Crimes Task Force. A written statement by FBI Special Agent Petra Butler, a task force member, says McBeth was correct from the start: He had been talking to police. On Wednesday, a federal grand jury in Salt Lake City indicted McBeth on a charge of coercion and enticement of a minor for illegal sexual activity. The grand jury also indicted two other men - Rodney Chadwick Andrew and Todd Giovanni Labell - in separate cases on the same charge. In addition, Labell was charged with travel with intent to engage in illicit sexual activity. Details of their cases were not available. And two weeks ago, the U.S. Attorney's Office filed a complaint accusing a 31-year-old man of meeting a minor outside of a Centerville elementary school for a sexual encounter. Police say they arrested Charles Lamar Ness after finding him June 17 in bushes on the school grounds with a 15-year-old boy. The teen allegedly said he had met Ness through the Internet on a Salt Lake City chatroom. - Pamela Manson

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