Posted on 08/02/2005 6:06:38 AM PDT by Born Conservative
A Times Leader reporter was arrested for attempting to set up a sexual encounter with an apparent 13-year-old girl and authorities want to know if there are other victims.
Stephen Sembrat, 48, used the Internet to lure a potential victim to a Sunday meeting in the Philadelphia area, Delaware County authorities said. The Edwardsville man faces several felony charges.
Sembrat's position as a former sports reporter and his affiliation with the Pocono Field Hockey Club gave him the opportunity to have contact with girls ranging from 14 to 18 years old, said State Police at Wyoming.
Sembrat was longtime field hockey reporter at The Times Leader. However, he was forced to relinquish the beat when he accepted a coaching position with the Pocono club. At the time of his arrest, Sembrat was employed as a health writer at The Times Leader. At one point in an almost five-month, online investigation, Sembrat allegedly told an undercover officer he tied up a 12-year-old girl about four years ago.
In the Delaware County case, Sembrat allegedly told who he believed to be a 13-year-old girl he wanted to engage in various sex acts. He also asked to gag her or tie her up while she wore a softball uniform, police said. "It is really sexy to do that, it is a turn on," Sembrat allegedly told his potential victim about being tied up. "The feeling of being helpless can be really sexy."
Sembrat made first contact with his potential victim on March 10. He made contact again several times before the potential victim finally agreed to the meeting. These Internet conversations were sexual in nature, police said.
Sembrat thought the 13-year-old agreed to meet him in a store parking lot at 2:30 p.m. on Sunday, police said. But when Sembrat concluded about a two-hour, 115-mile trip to Springfield Township, he found police waiting, not a 13-year-old girl. He was taken into custody.
Sembrat's employment with The Times Leader is likely over.
"I am shocked and saddened that a long career of a prolific writer appears to be coming to an end," Times Leader President and Publisher Patrick McHugh said in a prepared statement. "We will cooperate fully with authorities as they investigate. The Times Leader will continue to report on the story as it unfolds." McHugh would not make himself available for further comment.
As for Sembrat, an America Online screen name of "Doom5888" is registered to Sembrat, police said. Det. Carroll conversed online with "Doom5888." When police searched Sembrat's Chevrolet Malibu they found a digital camera, a box of condoms, various ropes, duct tape, white socks, two bondage magazines, numerous bondage photos and numerous pictures of females, according to an arrest affidavit.
Sembrat consented to the search of his vehicle and admitted he used the "Doom5888" name, Delaware County authorities said. He allegedly told police he posed as a 14-year-old girl online as well.
A laptop computer and several other items were seized Sunday from Sembrat's 262 Roosevelt St., home by Trooper Brian Murphy, computer crime investigator for State Police at Wyoming.
Delaware County authorities have not ruled out searching computer equipment Sembrat may have used at The Times Leader, according to Delaware County Assistant District Attorney G. Michael Green.
Sembrat is incarcerated in George Hill Correctional Facility until he can post 10 percent of his $250,000 bail.
A preliminary hearing is tentatively scheduled for Aug. 9 at 9 a.m. before District Judge Andrea E. Puppio in Springfield Township.
Most local field hockey coaches declined comment on the arrest.
Wyoming Valley West field hockey coach Linda Fithian, who won an AAA state championship two seasons ago, was mystified.
"Someone called me early Monday night and told me to watch the news," she said. "I can't believe it. Steve was close to our program. I thought very highly of him. I still don't believe it."
Lake-Lehman field hockey coach Jean Lipski had no comment on the matter, as did Wyoming Valley Conference field hockey secretary Stew Casterline, who also serves as Tunkhannock High School's athletic director.
In addition, Coughlin field hockey coach Colleen Wood refused to comment on the arrest.
sickos everywhere
You know, I never heard of a man being involved in girl's field hockey. I would have been very suspicious of that one from the beginning.
This case will be tied up in court forever!
Geez, and I thought my car was a mess. All of a sudden the kids' toys don't seem so bad.
Ever wonder how many in the vastly liberal news gathering and reporting business are sickos like this?
I have to believe many more then they'd like us to know.
I mean if Peter Jennings isn' a bondage pedophile freak then I read him wrong.
I guess we won't be seeing him at the fantasy football draft pick this year...
Yes, very suspicious. No one questions these things?
I'm surprised that their lead story is about the sex sting, and yet they publish one of his stories on the same day.
The paper he works for really doesn't have all that much integrity to start with. Doesn't surprise me at all.
Maybe he meant high school seniors.
I believe it was Mark Twain who said that every reporter should have a brother who works as a piano player in a brothel so that the reporter would have someone to look up too. Apparently nothing has changed.
LOL!
SPEEEWWWWW!!!! Omigish.
It's safe to assume that anyone claiming to be a sexually provocative teenage girl in a chatroom is actually an overweight middle-aged cop.
He's been listening to old Tubes songs too much.
Mondo bondage
I’ve been tied up so long
There’s no escape
I’ve been strangled
All choked up inside
Swallowed all my pride
Roped and hogtied
Been tied up in knots
That’s all I got
Gimme glove shoes
This ain’t no way for havin’ fun
I could run away to Spain
But I’d just get tied again
I could run off to Jamaica
If this bondage I could breaka
I could run away to Spain
But I’d just get tied again
I could run off to Jamaica
If this bondage I could breaka
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