A 41-year-old Carson City man, who posed on an Internet Web site as a 17-year-old, is to appear Aug, 26 in District Court on a felony charge of luring a child under 16.
Frank Pepper is accused of sending sexually explicit text messages in July 2007 to a 13-year-old Gardnerville girl and trying to get her to meet him at the movies.
Pepper was arrested Aug. 15 after a year-long investigation. He is in Douglas County Jail on $102,255 cash bail.
He was arrested at 9:30 p.m. on northbound Highway 395 as he rode his bicycle to Carson City on his way home from work, according to reports.
Pepper waived a preliminary hearing in East Fork Justice Court on Wednesday.
According to reports, Pepper allegedly met the victim online last July on www.321teenchat.com, a Web site for teenagers. He said his name was Tom, he was 17, and lived in Indian Hills.
He reportedly tried to get her to meet him at the movies, but there was no physical contact, according to reports.
By August 2007, they were frequently chatting online and the girl told authorities she gave Pepper her cell phone number.
By this time, the conversations had become sexual, according to reports. The girl's older sister heard the victim talking with Pepper, and alerted their father who grabbed the phone and demanded to know who the caller was.
Pepper reportedly hung up.
Investigators traced Pepper through a cell phone that belonged to his former roommate.
He turned over his computer hard drive that was sent to the Rocky Mountain Information Network, an agency that was able to retrieve the text messages and found 81 images of pornography.
According to reports, Pepper admitted the contacts with the girl.
He told authorities he would get drunk and look for pornography, but he was "just doing it for fun."
