Local man accused of enticing youth on Internet
By LARRY HURRLE
ARGUS OBSERVER
Saturday, March 27, 2010 11:14 PM PDT
PAYETTE — A New Plymouth man has been arrested and is awaiting arraignment in Third District Court on charges of enticing a child over the Internet.
In a press release put out by the Payette County Prosecutor’s Office, Ronald Micheli, waived his right to a preliminary hearing in Payette County Monday and is scheduled to be arraigned at 9 a.m. April 16 before Third District Judge Susan Wiebe.
An online search of the Idaho Supreme Court Data Repository revealed Micheli’s year of birth as 1952 and his town of residence as New Plymouth.
Payette County Prosecutor Anne Marie Kelso said the charge of enticing a child over the Internet is a felony and carried a penalty of up to 15 years in prison.
In public documents released by the court, the Idaho Attorney General’s office received a report on Sept. 20, 2009, from the Ogden, Utah, Police Department concerning an online, Internet chat between Micheli and an undercover Ogden police officer posing as a 15-year-old girl.
In a deposition provided by Idaho AG criminal investigator Scott W. Smith, the Ogden Police Department set up the fictitious profile on Yahoo! to identify and investigate sexual predators on the Internet.
In the report, Smith said the Ogden police officer entered the Idaho chat room on Yahoo! and received an instant message from an online persona of “ron1972000,” which was later identified to belong to Micheli.
In an online conversation that was recorded by Ogden police, Micheli briefly engaged in idle chat with the officer, before the conversation turned to questions regarding sexual acts. At the time, Micheli did not identify himself to the officer but did say he was from Idaho and was a correctional officer.
According to the AG’s report, Micheli was initially questioned about the Internet chat at his place of employment, which was identified as Snake River Correctional Institution in Ontario.
The deposition revealed that Micheli had engaged in conversation with the Ogden officer on June 24, 2009, and July 1, 2009. Each conversation, it revealed, included sexually explicit content and included Micheli’s desire to engage in sexual acts with the other person.
The conversation referenced, several times, that the online persona Micheli was chatting with was 15 years old. In the conversation, Micheli also requested nude photographs from the person and spoke extensively about his desire to travel to Utah to meet at a motel and engage in sexual intercourse and other sexual acts.
In the AG’s affidavit, the Ogden Police said Micheli again conversed with the officer on July 1, at which time Micheli portrayed himself via a Web cam and was visible only from the waist up. The affidavit said Micheli was not wearing clothing on the upper part of his body, and he indicated in the chat conversation that he was not wearing any clothes. Micheli also noted in the conversation that he would walk around nude, especially in the spring through the fall.
Micheli was questioned at SRCI on Dec. 1 and informed of the criminal investigation.
According to the affidavit, Micheli admitted to being the creator and user of Yahoo! profile “ron1972000.” In the report, Micheli said he did use the Idaho chat room, but did not recall chatting with an identity with the persona created by Ogden police.
The report said, “Micheli went on to say that he has engaged in sexual oriented chats with ‘several hundred’ women and has met with ‘maybe 50’ for sexual contact.” One of the women that Micheli allegedly met for sex was in Utah, but Micheli denied that it was with the online persona.
On two occasions, Micheli was asked if he knew the age of the online persona. He said he knew she was young, but didn’t believe she was only 15 because, “I don’t believe that they’re what they say they are.”
Police requested, via search warrant, records from Yahoo! on the subscriber “ron1972000.” A search revealed the username was created May 8, 2002, and belonged to a Ron Micheli. Among records, a Yahoo! friends list was provided and the Ogden Police Department’s persona was among the friends on the list.
