David Frattare spends a lot of time on the Internet pretending to be a teenage girl, but role-playing is serious business for the special agent with the Pennsylvania state attorney general’s Child Predator Unit.
In three years, Frattare and seven other agents assigned to the unit have snared 150 sexual predators who have tried to engage in sexual activity with children.
In his role as a 13-year-old girl, Frattare has met many suspected criminals.
Among them was John T. Hackenberg, 38, of Middleburg, who allegedly approached Frattare, who was in his Pittsburgh office posing as a young girl in an online chat room on Feb. 5, 2007.
Frattare had set up a MySpace account for the girl he was posing as and included age-appropriate photographs of a 13-year-old girl.
On his own, Hackenberg obtained the young girl’s photograph and during their first encounter in the chatroom he allegedly turned the conversation toward a sexual nature very quickly.
He set up a live Webcam and invited the “girl” to watch him as he masturbated, using the child’s photograph as a sex aid, despite her comments that she wasn’t comfortable and reminding him of her age, the criminal complaint said.
Hackenberg allegedly had three more encounters with another agent, also posing as a 13-year-old girl, during which he masturbated via live Webcam.
Represented by Lewisburg attorney John Reed, Hackenberg pleaded guilty in Snyder County Court last month to felony unlawful contact with a minor and criminal use of a communication facility.
He’s free on $50,000 bail awaiting sentencing later this summer.
Danville attorney Michael Dennehy represents Mark J. Hollingshead, a 30-year-old Catawissa man free on $75,000 bail awaiting sentencing in Montour County Court after pleading guilty in May to one count each of felony unlawful contact with a minor and criminal use of a communication facility.
A state agent posing as a 13-year-old girl said Hollingshead approached the “child” on the Internet on May 29, 2007, exposing himself on a live Webcam and asking sexually graphic questions.
Dennehy said the wording of the state law allowing Internet stings to take place makes it easier for police to snare alleged predators.
“But there’s also a greater risk for entrapment,” he said.
Dennehy is not alleging state agents intentionally lured Hollingshead into committing a crime, but said the law leaves wide open the possibility of entrapment.
“I don’t think I like where the line has been drawn,” he said. “I like the basic commonwealth rule that police not engage in conduct that will engage someone to go where they normally wouldn’t go.”
Dennehy added that he has no major complaints with how the state Child Predator Unit operates, but said he would “make a lot of noise” if he suspects agents of trying to entice a defendant into committing a crime.
State spokesman Nils Frederiksen said agents work closely with two-full time prosecutors and are trained not to lead suspects into committing a crime.
“We’re not seeking them out. We respond to them,” Frederiksen said. “We have the authority, but we can’t cross a line. We can’t lead people into action that they wouldn’t normally do.”
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