LITTLETON — A 46-year-old Littleton theater director, who allegedly thought he was conversing on the Internet for more than six months with an underage girl, was arrested Wednesday on charges of Internet exploitation of a child.
Gerald Schell held the conversations on the Internet from March until September and was trying to set up a meeting with the “girl.” Schell was actually talking to officers of the Parker Police Department, said Sara Walla, spokeswoman for the city of Parker.
Schell is a highly respected community-theater director who once owned his own theater company and has directed numerous Main Street Players productions, including the recent “Kiss Me Kate.”
In a statement by e-mail, David Beller, Schell’s attorney, stressed that his client is presumed innocent and complained that “the mention by the police that Jerry works in community theater implies something inappropriate about his former volunteer work. . . . There has never been a suggestion that he has done anything inappropriate, let alone illegal, while a volunteer.”Howard Pankratz, The Denver Post
