Trooper arrested in Net sting
Graphic sex pics were e-mailed to '14-year-old'
By Andrew Villegas, Greeley Tribune
Published July 26, 2008 at 12:05 a.m.
A state trooper was arrested Friday morning on suspicion of sexual exploitation of a child after Fort Lupton police said he used the Internet to send graphic sexual pictures of himself to a person he thought was a 14-year-old girl.
Fort Lupton Police Chief Ron Grannis said Colorado State Patrol Officer Justin Tolman, 22, was arrested Friday morning at his home in Colorado Springs and was booked into the Weld County Jail.
Tolman - who has been placed on paid administrative leave pending the outcome of a State Patrol investigation - has been with the State Patrol since July 2007 and finished the academy in December.
Grannis said his department began investigating Tolman after Detective Crystal Schwartz set up Internet accounts on MySpace.com and Yahoo! Chat posing as a 14- year-old girl.
Soon after the account was set up, Tolman began messaging Schwartz, sending her pornographic images and telling her what he would do sexually when they met, investigators said.
Police say Tolman even sent a picture of himself in a State Patrol uniform standing next to a patrol vehicle, and he messaged the "girl" every day for two months.
"Every day he was pushing toward something," Grannis said.
The Internet accounts are the same ones that were used in the arrest two weeks ago of Stanley Gantt, 52, a Transportation and Security Administration officer on the same charges Tolman faces.
"They're the exact ones," Grannis said. "They don't learn."
Grannis said 50 to 100 more men are still messaging Schwartz under the assumption that she's 14.
But he said limited resources are holding him back from making arrests.
"We arrest as many as we (have) the time and the means to do," he said of the two arrests thus far.
Sgt. John Hahn, spokesman for the State Patrol, said the patrol had completed a background check on Tolman before he was hired last year and that he passed.
"The process is an exhaustive one, to say the least," Hahn said.
Tolman is being held without bail in the Weld County Jail pending his first appearance in court Saturday morning.
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July 26, 2008
5:53 a.m.
Suggest removal
TankerDan writes:
How can someone get turned on over a kid? I hope they get slamed hard in court because they deserve to go to jail for two reasons. Being a pedophile and being dumb enough to think that you are going to get away with this kind of stuff on the Internet.
July 26, 2008
8:46 a.m.
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Thetrainer090 writes:
I agree Tanker, Throw them in the big house, and those guys will take care of them. Anyone that prays on kids should be sent away for life.
July 26, 2008
8:48 a.m.
Suggest removal
Thetrainer090 writes:
*expept now our taxes will have to pay for their stupity
July 26, 2008
12:08 p.m.
Suggest removal
SL10 writes:
TheTrainer090, what is worse he is on paid admin leave. I mean WTF. Now, I feel safer knowing there are child molsters joining the force. Not!
July 27, 2008
12:17 p.m.
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VoiceOfTheRockies writes:
Another "fox in the henhouse" story. Nice to see that there are working internal checks in place; this is probably what helped nab another enemy attempting to prey on innocent children. I personally feel that pedophilia could be a disease that may or may not be treatable. Whatever the root causes are (i.e. past sexual abuse by the abuser) as a true believer in utilitarianism, I feel that it should be mandatory policy that first offences are treated by reversible chemical castration. Zero tolerance!