Beginning in February, a local law enforcement officer used an undercover online profile and was contacted by a user that disclosed his age as 39. This user, who stated that he resided in Helper, believed that he was speaking with a 15-year-old female.
According to a probable cause statement, it did not take long before the male began making sexual remarks to the supposed minor, going so far as to request photos of the 15-year-old topless. He also requested that the believed-to-be minor meet him on several occasions to engage in sexual acts. Throughout the conversations, the male also made it known that he was aware that enticing a minor is felony offense.
Through a number of subpoenas that the officer submitted, information was slowly gathered about the individual, who went by the name of Alex online but turned out to be Michael James Kerr of Price. It was also discovered that the vehicle Kerr was driving and the email address he was using were not on the sex offender list, where he was already registered for a previous conviction of rape of a child in 2009.
Eventually, the law enforcement officer requested that Kerr meet with the minor at a local, public area. At the time, the officer was being assisted by two other law enforcement officers, who began to follow Kerr when he attempted to quickly flee the scene. Kerr was apprehended and interviewed at the Carbon County Jail, where he denied the online interactions laid out before him.
With the evidence, which included traced IP addresses and information garnered from Kerr’s drivers license, he was arrested and charged with a count of sexual exploitation of a minor, a second-degree felony, as well as one count of enticing a minor, one count of unlawful sexual activity with a minor and two counts of sex offender registry violation, all third-degree felonies.