HARRISBURG - A Luzerne Intermediate Unit teacher assigned to the Tunkhannock Area School District has been arrested on charges of using the Internet to solicit sex from an undercover officer who the teacher believed to be a 12-year-old girl.
The state Office of Attorney General said Robert Edward Lott, 54, of Harveys Lake, engaged in multiple sexually explicit conversations with a child-predator unit officer who was posing as the girl online. Lott also used a Webcam - a device that allows someone to send live video over the Internet - to transmit images of himself masturbating to the agent, authorities say.
According to an arrest affidavit, Lott communicated with the "girl" online for about two weeks before arranging to meet her July 27 in a restaurant parking lot in Ridley Park, Delaware County. He was arrested upon his arrival and charged with two counts of criminal attempt of unlawful contact with a minor and one count of criminal use of a communication facility -- all felonies. He was released after posting 10 percent bond on $125,000 bail and faces a preliminary hearing in Delaware County on Aug. 28.
Lott, a 26-year LIU employee, was immediately suspended with pay upon word of his arrest Friday morning, said Hal Bloss, assistant executive director. He will remain suspended pending resolution of the criminal case.
Lott had been assigned to the Tunkhannock Area School District since 1997, where he taught hearing-impaired students in kindergarten through 12th grade.
Spokesman Nils Frederiksen of the Attorney General's Office said a follow-up investigation is being done to determine if Lott was involved in other inappropriate activities. Anyone with questions or concerns about Lott or other people alleged to be child predators are urged to call the office at (800) 385-1044.
Tunkhannock Area Superintendent Michael Healey said that at this point the school district does not intend to contact parents of students who were enrolled in Lott's classes, but will make that information available to investigators if they need it.
"If the investigating officers want a copy of class lists, we'll provide that," Healey said. "We are not conducting the investigation, they are. If parents need to be contacted, we will cooperate with any reasonable requests from the investigating officers."
Lott is the 57th person to be arrested on charges of soliciting a minor online since the Attorney General's Office formed the child-predator unit in January 2005, Frederiksen said. He is also the second Luzerne County resident to be charged in Delaware County with attempting to meet a minor for sex.
In 2005, former Times Leader reporter Steve Sembrat was arrested after he traveled to Springfield Township to meet an agent from Delaware County's Internet crimes against children task force who had posed as a 13-year-old girl. Sembrat is serving a two- to four-year prison sentence in that case.
"What's staggering is even though we continue to make arrests, people continue to show up. It's not like they don't know these operations are going on," Frederiksen said.
In Lott's case, authorities say he first contacted the agent using the screen name "Robert_luvs_it" through a Yahoo chat room on July 11. During the initial conversation, Lott learned the girl's age, but had no further communication.
On July 12, Lott again contacted the agent. Within 10 minutes, the conversation turned sexual, with Lott graphically explaining how to perform sex acts.
Lott continued to have daily conversations with the agent from July 17 to 20. In several of the conversations, he transmitted via his Webcam video of himself masturbating and engaged in highly graphic sexual conversations. On July 24, Lott arranged to meet the "girl" in a West Chester Pike parking lot. Surveillance was set up at the location, but Lott did not arrive.
On July 27, Lott contacted the agent again and advised he was en route. He was taken into custody at 12:30 p.m. after arriving in the Stargate Diner parking lot.
Frederiksen said no one knows how many of these types of solicitations occur, but if the child predator unit's experience is any indication, there is cause for serious concern among parents.
Frederiksen said the Attorney General's Office is working to increase awareness of the issue and intends to conduct educational programs in schools statewide later this year.
"We don't want to indict all chat rooms, but parents need to be aware if their kids are out there chatting, chat rooms can be magnets" for child predators, he said.
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