Mother's keen eye leads to charges in Internet sex sting
The mother of a Hempfield Area Senior High School student remembered seeing a news photograph of Dale W. Catley Jr. taken in April after the arrests of four men in an Internet sex sting.
She contacted authorities and told them that she believed Catley had come to her home this year, met with her two teenage daughters and inappropriately touched them, according to court papers.
Now Catley, 27, of 4231 Hilty Road, Murrysville, is facing new criminal charges, as is Omar J. Bakth, 25, of 5460 Northumberland St., in Pittsburgh's Squirrel Hill neighborhood, who also had been arrested in April.
At a news conference Thursday in North Huntingdon Township, state Attorney General Tom Corbett announced the filing of criminal charges against Catley and Bakth, along with Richard G. Schirf, 27, of Hempfield Township, and Jack Ulrich Jr., 27, of 318 37th St., in Pittsburgh's Lawrenceville section.
The four men are charged with attempting to have unlawful contact with a minor and criminal use of a communication facility. On each charge, they face up to 20 years in prison and a $25,000 fine upon conviction, prosecutors said.
Catley and Bakth are awaiting trial on the previous charges.
In the latest cases, investigators said the four men either arranged meeting with teens via the Internet or had sexually explicit Internet exchanges with investigators posing as teenage girls. North Huntingdon and University of Pittsburgh police, along with Ohio authorities, helped the attorney general's office in the investigations.
"This is the stealing of the innocence of our youth ... and it's a nationwide problem," Corbett said. "We have to fight it together."
In Catley's case, the mother of the Hempfield ninth-grader contacted authorities six days after the April 1 news conference, according to court papers.
"She had recognized Catley from the news report of his arrest, which included a photo of him," the affidavit said.
The mother, who wasn't identified by authorities, said Catley had come to her home a few weeks before the April news conference.
Investigators then interviewed the woman's 16-year-old daughter. The teen confirmed that Catley contacted her earlier in the year via the Internet, then went to the fast-food restaurant where she was working to watch her, authorities said.
He came to her family's home March 5, the teen told investigators.
"When he entered the house, he introduced himself to her and her family and stated that he was 19 years old," court papers said.
Catley then touched the girl inappropriately and did the same with her 13-year-old sister before leaving, authorities said.
Catley also obtained the cell phone number of the younger sister and called her three times, according to court papers. The girl hung up and eventually blocked any more calls from him, investigators said.
Authorities said that in late 2004 and early 2005, Bakth engaged in computer exchanges with someone he thought was a 14-year-old girl. The "teen" actually was a detective from the police department in Fairborn, Ohio, which already was investigating Bakth with authorities at the University of Pittsburgh, where Bakth worked.
Bakth discussed sexual acts that he wanted to perform, prosecutors said.
The exchange ended on March 21, when Bakth e-mailed the undercover officer and said that he had gotten into trouble with police. He asked the undercover officer to deny having contact with him, prosecutors said.
From June 2004 to May, Schirf allegedly communicated with an undercover investigator who he believed was a 12-year-old girl. He made requests for sex and was apprehended at a North Huntingdon fast-food restaurant where he was to meet the girl, investigators said.
A search of Schirf's vehicle turned up a Valentine card intended for a 16-year-old Latrobe-area girl, whom he had met, kissed and touched in an encounter at his home, according to court papers.
Authorities alleged that Ulrich used the Internet to talk with an investigator posing as a 12-year-old girl. He requested nude photos of her, investigators said.
He also allegedly contacted someone he believed was a 13-year-old friend of the 12-year-old but actually was another undercover officer.
These conversations led to an April 4 meeting for sex, court papers stated.
Corbett said that when Ulrich didn't come to the meeting, West Mifflin police were contacted to confront him at his former home in the Allegheny County borough. That department already had Ulrich under investigation for alleged Internet crimes, prosecutors said.
After yesterday's news conference, a woman who identified herself as Ulrich's wife of two months talked to the media.
Mary Ulrich said her husband was innocent of the charges and may have been set up by others.
"I wouldn't have married him if I thought he was guilty of these things," she said. "I don't believe he's guilty or would ever harm a child."
