This is Sparta or This is Madness

[XLFD]

A village council member appointed to replace another serves on the Sparta village council for a few months before he gets a felony charge from an FBI sting operation for accosting children for immoral purposes.  Here is the story as told by WOOD TV:

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) — A Sparta village council member has been arrested and charged with accosting a child for immoral purposes.
Ryan James Hayes, 34, was arrested last Tuesday in an FBI sting operation, Kent County Undersheriff Michelle LaJoye-Young said.
Jail records show Hayes was arrested by the Kent County Sheriff's Department, but LaJoye-Young said her office only acted in assisting the FBI.
Hayes was charged with accosting children for immoral purposes, and using a computer to commit a crime. The accosting charge is a felony that carries a maximum penalty of four years in prison.
Hayes was new to the Sparta village council — appointed in February to fill a vacant seat. He was sworn in on March 12, according to the village’s Facebook page.
Sparta Village President Kristi Dougan said the Kent County Sheriff's Department alerted her of the arrest.
"At this point, we have to allow the criminal justice system to work," Dougan told 24 Hour News 8. "It's unfortunate."
Dougan said at this point, Hayes maintains his position on the council and she said the board doesn't have a mechanism to remove him based on the charges alone.
"He hasn't made any indication that he'll make any changes," Dougan said, adding that she hasn't spoken with Hayes since his arrest.
Dougan said she isn't sure if Hayes will be at the next scheduled council meeting on Monday.
Hayes' arrest won't impact the board's ability to manage the village, Dougan said.
"We are going to conduct village business," she said.
Hayes is on the November ballot. He is running unopposed for one of three open seats on the Sparta Village council.
An FBI spokesperson was not immediately available to provide details surrounding the arrest late Friday afternoon.  

https://www.woodtv.com/news/kent-county/sparta-village-councilman-a...

Mlive also had a story with less detail.

This article interested me for several reasons.

It shows that a village or city council's pick for a replacement of an elected position generally has a lot less vetting than one who gets their position through the election process.  A good reason why this is the case is that if you petition to run in an election, you have to presume there is a good chance you will have at least one opponent, and presume that your true character and skeletons in your closet may come out in the process of campaigning over many months in front of the whole community.

It shows that there was an awful long time before Councilor Hayes was 'stung' and when this became public knowledge.  He was arrested Tuesday September 25 by the FBI and lodged in the jail for a day, then ten days later, it appears in the news.  It makes you think that law enforcement does not consider him a great threat to the community, nor to flee.

It also makes you wonder how this 'sting' operation worked.  In Michigan, the law is clear. If you participate in a suggestive conversation with a minor online — even if the person you communicated with online was an adult, but you believed he or she was a minor — you are considered guilty of accosting that minor, and of using a computer to commit that crime.

These sting operations tip the scales toward entrapment, as people using their personal computers in the privacy of their own homes are often not aware they are chatting with minors or are enticed to do so.  If computer forensic records show that Councilor Hayes had a history of using the internet to chat suggestively with youths, then entrapment is likely off the table. 

Conversely, if this was a conversation he was enticed into, where he got hooked into saying something without necessarily an immoral motive on his part, the FBI is just wasting their own time and resources in bringing charges on this councilor.  With the lack of much detail to the charges, I would bet that the case is not all that strong.  Unfortunately, Councilor Hayes may get vindicated and may even be able to keep his job if he proves innocent, but he will never be able to get his reputation back if it has been slighted here by an aggressive FBI team.  

[Willy]

I have a niece who tells her parents about all of the trashy things the kids her age are doing on the internet and it's a wonder how more internet users over the age of 18 are not routinely caught up in these types of sting operations. I  frankly was shocked when I heard what these under 18 "kids" are doing now days to amuse themselves. It's just not boys, the girls are just as bad.