Federal prosecutor from Florida caught in child sex sting
Paul Egan / The Detroit News
A federal prosecutor from Florida was ordered held in custody Monday after he appeared in U.S. District Court in Detroit on a charge that he flew to Detroit intending to have sex with a 5-year-old girl.
John David R. Atchison, 53, of Gulf Breeze, Fla., an assistant U.S. Attorney in Florida's northern district, is expected to appear again in court for a detention hearing on Tuesday.
He was caught in an Internet child sex sting run by the Macomb County Sheriff's Department and the FBI and arrested Sunday when he flew into Detroit Metropolitan Airport from Pensacola, Fla., according to a criminal complaint filed in federal court in Detroit.
A sheriff's deputy posed as a mother who was interested in finding someone to have sex with her children, in a sting that has already netted a California paramedic and numerous other alleged pedophiles from around the country.
According to the complaint, Atchison reassured the sheriff's deputy who was posing as the child's mother that he would not hurt the 5-year-old because he goes "slow and easy," and "I've done it plenty."
Atchison is charged with using interstate communication to entice a minor to have sexual contact, a federal charge that carries a 10-year minimum prison sentence upon conviction. He is also charged with traveling across state lines with the intent of engaging in illicit sexual contact, an offense that carries a maximum sentence of 30 years.
News of Atchison's arrest is "a shellshock" in Gulf Breeze, where Atchison was the president of a local youth recreation board and had been involved in coaching soccer, baseball and other sports, said Lt. Rich Hawthorne of the Gulf Breeze police.
"It's an extreme surprise," because Atchison, who is married with children and has lived in the community about 20 years, was seen as an "outstanding member of the community," Hawthorne said.
In Macomb County, where the Internet sting originated, "nothing surprises me anymore," said Sheriff Mark Hackel.
"I want people to get the understanding here in Macomb County we don't want people to prey on kids from this area or coming into this area," Hackel said.
"We have seen all walks of life that have attempted to prey on our children."
A slight man with circle baldness and a Vandyke beard, Atchison appeared in court wearing glasses, blue jeans and a white sweat shirt.
Officials at the U.S. Attorney's Office in Tallahassee, where the northern district of Florida is headquartered, and in Pensacola, where Atchison works, could not immediately be reached for comment.
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