Probation for man in Net sex sting

Sought to arrange tryst with 13-year-old girl

A Bethesda man was ordered yesterday to complete a sex-offenders program while on probation and, unless supervised, stay away from young girls and the Internet, which he used to arrange a meeting for sex last year with someone he thought was a bored 13-year-old but turned out to be a Carroll County sheriff's deputy.

Todd K. Thompson, 27, had just moved out of his family home to an apartment in Baltimore when he was arrested Feb. 5, 2002, at a restaurant in Finksburg. He had sent his photo and a description of his car and clothing to the deputy, who was waiting with other officers to arrest him that afternoon.

"Your honor, I'm just very embarrassed and I'm very sorry," Thompson told Circuit Judge Luke K. Burns Jr. yesterday before being sentenced on his conviction for using computers for child pornography, a crime that carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison.

A charge of attempted second-degree sex offense was dropped when Thompson pleaded guilty to the computer charge Sept. 3. The judge granted Thompson probation before judgment, meaning that if he meets the conditions of two years of supervised probation in Montgomery County he will not have a criminal record.

After Thompson pleaded guilty, Burns delayed sentencing to allow him time for counseling and a sex-offenders' therapy program. Yesterday, he also ordered that Thompson have no unsupervised contact with juveniles younger than age 14 and only supervised Internet use.

Thompson was one of seven men arrested after traveling into Carroll County last year for allegedly arranging sexual trysts with 13- or 14-year-old girls via Internet chat rooms.