Cabool Man Charged with Enticing a Minor for Illicit Sex
| U.S. Attorney’s Office February 06, 2013 |
SPRINGFIELD, MO—Tammy Dickinson, United States Attorney for the Western District of Missouri, announced that a Cabool, Missouri man was charged in federal court today with enticing a 14-year-old girl to engage in illicit sex.
Scott Dwayne Baker, 45, of Cabool, was charged in a federal criminal complaint filed in the U.S. District Court in Springfield, Missouri.
According to an affidavit filed in support of today’s criminal complaint, a Missouri State Highway Patrol trooper received a report on Saturday, February 2, 2013, that a 14-year-old minor had received numerous text messages of a sexual nature from Baker. Baker was well aware of the minor’s age, the affidavit says. The trooper assumed the identity of the child victim and began communicating with Baker via cell phone text messages. During one text session, the affidavit says, Baker sent a pornographic image of himself to the child victim.
On Sunday, February 3, 2013, the undercover officer continued a lengthy text message conversation with Baker during the Super Bowl. Baker sent explicitly sexual messages during this exchange, according to the affidavit. When the undercover officer informed him that the child victim was planning to skip school on Monday, the affidavit says, Baker replied by asking for her to skip school today instead, because he would be off work and they could meet at her house while she was at home alone. Baker was asked to bring a Dr. Pepper and a candy bar for the child victim.
When Baker arrived at the child victim’s residence at approximately noon Monday, February 4, 2013, bringing the Dr. Pepper and candy bar, he was arrested by officers of the Missouri State Highway Patrol.
Dickinson cautioned that the charge contained in this complaint is simply an accusation and not evidence of guilt. Evidence supporting the charge must be presented to a federal trial jury, whose duty is to determine guilt or innocence.
This case is being prosecuted by Supervisory Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael S. Oliver. It was investigated by the Missouri State Highway Patrol, the Southwest Missouri Cyber Crimes Task Force, and the FBI.
This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. Led by the United States Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who sexually exploit children and to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.usdoj.gov/psc. For more information about Internet safety education, please visit www.usdoj.gov/psc and click on the tab “Resources.”