Man pleads guilty in Myspace sex case:
A registered predatory sex offender accused of having intercourse with a 14-year-old girl he met through a popular Internet site pleaded guilty Friday in St. Louis County District Court to two crimes.
Shaun Michael Roethlisberger, 22, pleaded guilty to third-degree criminal sexual conduct and with violating predatory offender registration provisions for not notifying authorities of his current address.
St. Louis County prosecutor Vern Swanum and Duluth defense attorney David Keegan said Friday that part of Roethlisberger’s sentence will be dependent on a psycho-sexual evaluation and whether he is amenable to sex offender treatment at a local facility.
Duluth Police Chief Roger Waller had called a news conference at City Hall in June to announce Roethlisberger’s arrest. Waller said it was an “important community event” to remind parents of the potential dangers young people face on the Internet.
According to the criminal complaint, Roethlisberger, formerly of Ely, has a prior fifth-degree criminal sexual conduct conviction and was required to register as a predatory sex offender under Minnesota law.
Police said that Roethlisberger met the girl on the Internet site Myspace.com. The girl told police that after she and Roethlisberger communicated online they talked on the telephone about having sexual relations.
They met near the Miller Hill Mall and went to his house and had sex. They met again in a park in West Duluth on May 20 and had sex.
The teenager said Roethlisberger knew she was only14 years old because she was identified that way onMyspace.com. She told police the defendant told her not to tell anyone about their sexual encounters because if she did, he would go to jail.
Another registered sex offender goes on to prey again. Why bother to see if he’ll take to treatment? It’s obvious that he won’t. Anyway, we do have Roethlisberger’s MySpace.
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