United States v. Fortner, No. 19-3162 (6th Cir. 2019)
Annotate this CaseAn undercover FBI agent, posing as a mother, posted a Craigslist ad, indicating that she wanted to talk about “taboo” subjects with an “open-minded” counterpart. Fortner sent the agent an e-mail asking if he could have sex with her children. Fortner and two officers communicated regularly for several weeks. He sent them links to child pornography and asked graphic questions about what he could do with their children. Fortner also requested photographs of one officer’s child. The officer sent a photo of her undercover persona instead. Fortner and one officer agreed to meet. If the introductions went well, the officer promised, Fortner could take things further. At a restaurant, the officer and Fortner discussed his two prior child sex abuse convictions and what he could do with the officer’s child. The officer arrested him. The government charged Fortner with attempting to coerce a minor and committing a felony offense involving a minor while required to register as a sex offender, 18 U.S.C. 2422(b), 2260A. Fortner moved to dismiss the second count, arguing that he did not commit an offense involving a minor because the children he sought to coerce were not real. The Sixth Circuit affirmed the denial of that motion. A sex offender commits an “offense involving a minor” if, in the course of a sting operation, he attempts to commit a sex crime with a pretend child.
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