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Internet sex sting Judge in Cleveland sentences Coaldale man in 2007 case

From The Times News

A Coaldale man was sentenced by a federal judge in Cleveland to more than seven years in prison after he traveled to Ohio last August with the intention to have sex with a teenage girl that he met over the Internet.

The 14-year-old girl was fictional and the person he met was actually an undercover agent posing as the "girl's" mother.

According to court records filed Aug. 13, in the Clerk of Courts office in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio, Lonnie Ray Kerestes, 37, of Coaldale, was sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge Christopher A. Boyko on Aug. 11, to serve a total of 87 months in prison for travel to engage in illicit sexual conduct with a minor. He must also register as a state sex offender and provide a DNA sample. Federal charges were applied in this case because Kerestes crossed state lines to commit the act.

On Aug. 13, Kerestes filed an appeal in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit challenging the ruling.

According to a memorandum by Kerestes' attorney, Carlos Warner, on Aug. 4, he states "Lonnie Kerestes traveled from Coaldale, Pennsylvania, to Canton, Ohio for the purpose of engaging in sexual conduct with a person whom he believed was 14 years of age. Mr. Kerestes met the undercover officer posing as a 41-year-old mother who was seeking sexual partners for herself and her fictional 14-year-old daughter. Mr. Kerestes was involved in e-mail, Internet chats, and telephone correspondences with this person which culminated in Mr. Kerestes' travel from Pennsylvania to Ohio for the purpose of meeting the females in Belden Village Mall."

Kerestes, who is a father of five, was apprehended by FBI agents and Jackson, Ohio police officers around 9:40 a.m. on Aug. 8, 2007, at the food court in Westfield Belden Village mall in Stark County, Ohio.

He was charged with felony counts of attempted unlawful sex with a minor and importuning with a telecommunications device as a result and a $100,000 bond was set in Massillon Municipal Court. At the time of his arrest, he was employed as a mechanic for the U.S. Department of Defense at Tobyhanna Army Depot.

On Feb. 26, Kerestes pleaded guilty to the indictment that charged him with traveling in interstate commerce for the purpose of engaging in illicit sexual conduct with a minor.