Earlier this summer the Coquille PD arrested a Myrtle Point man, Gentry Brogan King, on charges of luring a minor, a Class C felony. Allegedly, King, who will be 23 in December, through a series of text messages attempted to entice a fourteen year old female acquaintance he had spoken to earlier at the Coquille Produce Mart where he worked. The messages started out innocently enough but quickly escalated until it was blatantly clear how inappropriate his intentions were and the police were contacted. On July 19 a grand jury reviewed the text evidence and questioned the victim and determined there was sufficient cause to proceed with a prosecution.

Normally, this wouldn’t be the type of thing I would write about on MGx but in this case the fourteen year old victim is my daughter, (who would very much like this entire matter to go away), and this morning King, who has a 2009 conviction for sexual harassment, chose to plead not guilty and request a jury trial. Last week, the district attorney’s office rejected an offer from defense attorney, Nick Nylander, to plead guilty to a misdemeanor charge of “attempted” luring of a minor noting that if King had succeeded in luring my daughter they would also be charging him with additional crimes.

King, I understand, is the son of Dal King, former CEO for twenty-nine years of what is now Oregon Community Credit Union and a man resembling King senior attended the plea hearing this morning. Having seen the text communications firsthand, there is no reason to expect that anyone who would knowingly write such things to a fourteen year old would give any thought to sparing the victim any further anxiety but I was hopeful his family would encourage him to do the right thing… evidently, that hope was misplaced. A trial date is set for November 15 although King can and hopefully will change his plea and spare my daughter and our family any further grief.

Text messaging can be a useful tool and I appreciate being able to touch base with my kids at a moments notice. Unfortunately, texting can also be a deadly weapon when employed by sexual predators against unsuspecting and unwitting prey. My daughter simply wasn’t equipped to handle the conversation as it evolved and even worried about whether she was being rude!?!? Today’s electronic social media forces parents to address an entirely new class of threats and we have to instill adult level assertiveness into the very children we want to keep innocent.

Cell phones aren’t the only form of social media that can be used for inappropriate solicitation of minors. Almost immediately after his release from jail King deleted his Facebook account and while there is no evidence he used this account to solicit underage girls, as parents, we must all take an active interest in what is happening on our children’s online world, from their Facebook friends to their text messages.