COLUMBUS, OHIO — A former children’s services lawyer was arrested in an Internet child-sex sting Wednesday in the basement of the Ohio Statehouse, minutes after the investigator who lured him there testified two floors above in favor of a bill that would increase penalties for such crimes.
Barry Mentser, 48, of Columbus thought he had been communicating online with a 15-year-old girl, said Lt. Jeff Braley, a detective from Hamilton Township in southwest Ohio. Braley said he posed as the girl to set up a Statehouse meeting with Mentser.
Braley, who said he had been communicating with the man for about a year, testified before the state Senate Criminal Justice Committee in favor of a bill that would set mandatory sentences of one to five years for importuning by telecommunications, a statute aimed at sexual offenders who seek out children through the Internet. Braley said later that he didn’t arrange the sting at the Statehouse to draw attention to the bill or his testimony.
The Associated Press
