Now that a 45-year-old Manassas man has been convicted of soliciting sex from a minor over the Internet, he's facing as much as five years in prison. He is Rodney Ian Butler of 10100 Brandon Way.
According to Fairfax County police, when Butler got busy on the computer, he believed that he was corresponding with a 13-year-old girl. But much to his surprise, his would-be love interest turned out to be a grown-up, male, police detective with the Child Exploitation Unit, and Butler was busted.
Police said he and the "teen" had been exchanging e-mails for less than a week when he arranged a tryst between them for July 28. But when he arrived promptly at 5:30 p.m. at their appointed meeting place in Centreville to consummate their relationship, the police were waiting.
Butler was charged with using a communications system to facilitate certain offenses involving children. On Oct. 20 in General District Court, Judge Michael Cassidy certified Butler's case to the grand jury. And on Nov. 15, the grand jury indicted him.
He appeared Monday, Jan. 3, in Circuit Court, before Judge Stanley Klein to enter his plea. Before he did so, however, the judge made sure that he understood the full ramifications of what he was doing. He also ascertained that Butler was entering his guilty plea freely and voluntarily and because he was, indeed, guilty. He's scheduled to return to court March 18 for sentencing.
<tgl> — Bonnie Hobbs