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June 21, 2008

Local man, 69, accused of propositioning 'girl,' 13

By MaryAlice Meli

Agents with the Pennsylvania Attorney General�s Child Predator Unit arrested a Lawrence County man in Canonsburg.

Attorney General Tom Corbett said Leroy Maloni, 69, of 3511 Route 208, New Wilmington, allegedly used an Internet chat room to sexually proposition someone he believed was a 13-year-old girl. The �girl� was special agent David Frattare.

Maloni was arrested Tuesday when he arrived at a pre-arranged location driving a burgundy Dodge truck identical to the one he had described during online conversations.

District Judge David Mark arraigned Maloni on one count of attempted unlawful contact with a minor in relation to sexual offenses, one count of unlawful contact with a minor and one count of criminal use of a communication facility. All three are felony charges.

Maloni is being held in the Washington County jail in lieu of $50,000 straight bail. He has been ordered to undergo a behavioral clinical analysis and is prohibited from using the Internet or having unsupervised contact with minors. A preliminary hearing is scheduled for Tuesday.

In the criminal complaint, Frattare said he was in an undercover mode as a fictional child on May 14 when contacted by Maloni in a chat room known to be cruised by �individuals in search of sex with unsuspecting child victims.�

After Maloni initiated contact, Frattare said he immediately described himself as a female, age 13. Maloni then asked detailed questions about the �girl�s� physical appearance, her manner of schooling and what she liked to do for fun.

In turn, he provided some personal information, that he lived 20 minutes from the Grove City Outlets and one mile from Westminster College. He also said he did electrical and mechanical work, maintenance work and engineering.

In a second online conversation, Frattare reported, Maloni boasted he knows a lot of younger females, has taken them out to eat and sometimes back to his place. In online chats May 19 and 21, according to Frattare, he described his truck, said he took girls for rides in it and made out.

�I won�t lie to you, I like the ones your age,� Frattare recounted Maloni had written.

On May 27, according to Frattare, he told her his 36-year-old daughter was mad he had left her mother and was dating girls younger than she is and said the youngest he had dated was 14, although most were over 18. He then began asking more intimate questions about her body and raised the topic of sex.

In two more chats the next day, he asked to speak with her on the telephone, Frattare said.

On May 29, Frattare gave Maloni a telephone number answered by an adult female agent, Jennifer Kelley.

Between that date and the day of his arrest, Maloni conducted 15 online chats and five telephone calls with agents Frattare and Kelley that gradually became sexually explicit, according to the complaint.

Based on the nature of these interactions, Frattare applied for and received a court order from Allegheny County Common Pleas Court for Maloni�s Internet account information. A week later, the Internet provider, Yahoo, provided detailed account information to further the investigation.

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