Texan Gets Year in Prison in Internet Sex Case
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LOS ANGELES — A Texas man who traveled to Santa Monica to have sex with someone he thought was a 13-year-old girl was sentenced in federal court Tuesday to one year in prison.
The person the man traveled to meet turned out to be an undercover police officer prowling the Internet as a member of a multi-agency task force formed to fight child sex exploitation.
Authorities said Shelby Hardage, 59, of Austin, contacted the undercover officer on the Internet in September 1998 and began sending sexually explicit messages that led to a meeting in Santa Monica a day after Christmas.
Hardage was arrested at the scene. He pleaded guilty last March to interstate travel with intent to have sex with a juvenile.
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