Sex-predator sting operation nabs 18 men in Maryland

SNOW HILL, Md. — Eighteen men, including one from Pennsylvania, have been arrested in a yearlong sting operation targeting potential sexual predators, the Worcester County Sheriff's Office officials said Thursday.

Authorities said they monitored websites, including Craigslist's personal ad section, and found people seeking sexual partners. Officers would engage them in conversation, sometimes over many weeks, pretending to be girls or boys as young as 12 and 13 years old.

"What we found was a terrible presence online for people who were willing to prey upon our children," Lt. Mike McDermott said. "Fortunately, they were preying on somebody that was not a child. They were trying to prey on a police officer posing as a child."

Some suspects were found to have computers containing videos and images of child pornography or were participating in peer-to-peer sharing and downloading of such material, he said.

Worcester County on Maryland's Eastern Shore is home to the Ocean City, a destination for about 8 million beachgoers during the summer.

Suspects in the cases range in age from 21 to 70. Some are awaiting trial while others have been tried and are serving lengthy sentences, authorities said.

Even when a law-enforcement officer is posing as a minor, Maryland law explicitly states it's illegal to make arrangements for sexual activities when the solicitor believes the person on the other end of the conversation is a minor. Critics of the federally financed Internet Crimes Against Children's Task Force, which trains local police departments to do the stings, say the law-enforcement tactics amount to entrapment and often result in charges being dismissed or downgraded.

Deputies here had kept their operation under wraps until last month when they chose to announce an arrest — David Weatherholtz, 55, of West Ocean City, Md. — because they wanted to find other victims of his sexual abuse after officers lured him to a local McDonald's. He thought he was meeting a 13-year-old.

For 16 years, Weatherholtz ran a community theater near his home called The OC Jamboree. Officers said he targeted young boys for sexual and mental abuse and have identified five male victims so far.

"This shows why these type of investigations need to be done," said Cpl. Alex Kagan, the lead detective on the case for the Worcester County Bureau of Investigation.

Others charged:

• David Curtis Andrews, 51, of Salisbury, Md. The married father of two was found to be downloading and sharing child pornography over peer-to-peer networks, a form of sharing popularized by the filing-sharing system Napster. Andrews already is a registered sex offender. Authorities said his actions violated his parole, and he's now facing federal criminal charges.

•Bruce Dennis Deforest, 70, of Millsboro, Del. Deforest is accused of posting on Craigslist in search of young girls. When Deforest arrived for what he thought would be a rendezvous with a 13-year-old girl, the bed of his pickup truck had a bedroll and pillow waiting, officers said.

"He has been active. This is somebody who, despite being 70 years old, is still going out and looking to meet women," Kagan said. Deforest is awaiting trial.

• Carlos Edwin Majia, 35, of Seaford, Del. Majia communicated with authorities via text messages after officers posing as a 12-year-old girl posted a personal ad online. He met with officers and they say he and verified that he planned to have sex with a girl for money. His case is being adjudicated now.

• Jason Gregory Root, 37, of Snow Hill. The married father of two also is accused of downloading and sharing large amounts of child pornography over a peer-to-peer file sharing network and also had saved some of the material to his work computer, officials said. He is serving five years in prison.

• Quinton Purnell Bell, 50, Onley, Va.

• Frank Leroy Buccini, 21, Salisbury.

• Jose Cano-Lopez, 21, Berlin, Md.

• Pedro Josue Jimenez Cedillo, 23, Eden, Md.

• Brandon Murry Ehrisman, 27, Salisbury

• David Brynan Kerstetter, 55, Berlin, Md.

• Richard Lee Maloy, 41, Waynesboro, Pa., about 200 miles away.

• John Edward McGee III, 25, Laurel, Del.

• James Russell Moore III, 41, Cambridge, Md.

• Richard Thomas Peters, 39, Salisbury

• Darrell Lee Richardson, 55, Pocomoke City,Md.

• Miguel Valderas, 23, Quantico, Md.

• Laiton Blake Witkowski, 37, Stockton, Md.

Anybody with a smartphone can be an online sexual predator, Kagan said.

"Just the nature of children, especially teens, they will tend to be secretive," he said. "They feel as though they're growing up, and they want to have more responsibility. Allow them to grow but also protect them because they are still children. There are people who are out there looking to prey on them and to exploit that stage of development."

Brian Shane also reports for The (Salisbury, Md.) Daily Times.