A 28-year-old local man has been charged with numerous sex crimes against minors after agreeing to meet a vigilante adult posing as an underage girl online who staged a sting operation that was recorded and provided to law enforcement, court records show.
Although police used the private sting operation to build a case against the suspect, they are asking local residents to refrain from staging similar activities and leave police work to police.
Alexander Joseph Chesley, of Richmond, faces 10 second-degree felony counts of sexually exploiting a minor and one second-degree felony charge of enticing a minor via the internet following a Logan City Police Department investigation launched last month, according to an affidavit of probable cause filed with the 1st District Court.
The affidavit addresses a Feb. 13 sting operation in which a citizen seemingly took the law into their own hands and posed as a 15-year-old girl when interacting with Chesley online. Read the rest of the story on HJnews.com.
This story is made possible thanks to a community reporting partnership between The Herald Journal and Utah Public Radio.
