A sting operation by the Criminal Investigations Division of the Lake County sheriff’s office resulted in three felony charges being filed against a Michigan man who attempted to meet what he thought was a teenage girl for a sexual encounter, according to a news release.
Kyle J. Connor, 36, of the 700 block of East Hazelnut Street in Ferndale, Michigan, was charged with indecent solicitation of a child, traveling to meet a minor and distributing harmful material Thursday after his attempt to meet the “girl,” authorities said.
Lake County Judge Theodore Potkonjak set bail at $1 million for Connor during a bond hearing Friday afternoon. Connor remained in the Lake County jail, and his next scheduled court appearance is March 8.
For the past several weeks, Connor was communicating online with an undercover detective posing as a girl under the age of 15. During the communications, Connor asked the person he thought was a child for nude images of herself, the release said. He also sent her “sexually explicit images of himself.”
After the initial exchanges, Connor made arrangements to meet the detective posing as an underage girl for a sexual encounter, according to the release. When he was in the Chicago area working at a convention Thursday, he finalized plans to meet the “girl.”
When Connor arrived for the rendezvous, he met detectives and was arrested without incident, authorities said. The sting operation was a joint effort with the sheriff’s Criminal Investigations Division and the Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS).
Lake County Sheriff John D. Idleburg said in the release the Special Investigations Group (SIG) and NCIS have worked together to arrest a “number of adults who try and meet children for sex.”
“We are going to continue being aggressive in seeking those who prey on our children,” Idleburg said.
Deputy Chief Christopher Covelli said in an email Friday that although NCIS helped in the investigation, this was not a military matter.
NCIS is a member of the Special Investigations Group, he said. “They play a vital role in all investigations worked by SIG.”