Small-town mayor charged in sex sting
Posted on Tuesday, January 15, 2008
SPRINGFIELD, Mo. — A mayor was in jail Monday on charges of soliciting sex over the Internet from a police detective posing as a 13-year-old girl.
Allen Kauffman, 63, was arrested Friday and remained in jail Monday on $ 50, 000 bond on four counts of felony enticement of a child, police said.
Kauffman is mayor of Collins, Mo., a town of about 200 people in St. Clair County 50 miles northwest of Springfield. Police said he is married and is pastor of Temple Lot Church in Collins.
Kauffman’s arrest was the latest in a string of online child-sex stings by Jim Murray, a former Diamond, Mo., police chief and now a detective who has been active in Internet investigations since 2002.
Prosecutors alleged in court filings that Kauffman believed he was communicating with a 13-year-old girl from the Joplin area in a Yahoo ! chat room in November and December.
In the online messages, Kauffman allegedly asked the girl for sex and for nude pictures, and encouraged her to have sex with a girlfriend in front of a webcam so that he could watch.
Kauffman’s attorney, Mel Gilbert of Buffalo, Mo., could not be reached for comment Monday. Gilbert filed a motion for a bond reduction Monday, but no hearing dates were set, according to court records.
A phone message left at Kauffman’s home was not returned.
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