N.J. dentist, Drexel student charged in under-age sex sting
A Cherry Hill man with a dental practice in Cumberland County and a Drexel University graduate student have been charged with trying to meet an underage girl for sex.
Bensalem police yesterday announced the arrests of dentist John Lackner, 44, and Arun Kurikote-Antony, 24, an Indian national in the U.S. on a student visa, for soliciting an undercover cop posing as a 14-year-old girl.
Lackner, a dentist at Main Street Dental, in Vineland, had been having sexually oriented conversations with undercover police since January, police said.
John Lackner
Sgt. Michael Marren, of the Bensalem Police Department’s special-victims unit, said that Lackner communicated unwittingly with police through online messages, text messages, phone conversations and a Web cam.
“He got graphic and masturbated” on camera, Marren said.
Lackner also sent $150 to undercover cops to buy a phone that he could use to call the presumed minor, Marren said.
Lackner was arrested Tuesday when he showed up to meet whom he believed to be the girl at a Bensalem shopping mall and was greeted by police instead. Police found a set of toy handcuffs in Lackner’s vehicle.
Kurikote-Antony was arrested Feb. 16 after a five-month investigation. Police said that he also had been engaging in sexual conversations through text and online messages with undercover cops. They said that they waited to release news of his arrest to avoid tipping off other alleged predators.
“Our concern was that they Google ‘Bensalem,’ and the arrests will be the first thing to pop up,” Marren said, referring the popular computer-search engine.
Kuricote-Antony took a taxi from his apartment on 41st Street near Baltimore Avenue, West Philadelphia, to a Bensalem apartment complex to meet the minor, and was carrying condoms when he was arrested, police said.
Both men were charged with attempted statutory sexual assault, attempted involuntary deviate sexual intercourse and attempted aggravated indecent assault.
Lackner’s bail was set at $1 million. Kurikote-Antony was released on $200,000 bail, on condition of surrendering his passport.
“These people prey on a victim who is vulnerable,” Marren said. “They’ll try to find something about that child they can exploit, like a missing parent or poor grades. If we don’t get them, then they may find a real victim.
“We let them come to us,” he said. “We let them control where these conversations go.”
Marren said that seven predators have been arrested by Bensalem police since November 2007 as a result of the undercover investigations, including the two announced yesterday.
This article can be found on philly.com.
