June 26, 2008
Attorney General Corbett announces new criminal charges against Internet predator suspect from Lawrence County
HARRISBURG - Attorney General Tom Corbett today announced the filing of additional criminal charges against a Lawrence County man - Leroy Maloni, 69, of 3511 State Route 208, Apt. 4, New Wilmington - who was initially arrested by the Attorney General's Child Predator Unit on June 17, 2008.
Corbett said the new criminal charges filed today in Lawrence County allege that Maloni used Internet chat rooms to contact and sexually proposition an undercover agent from the New York State Police Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force. Maloni allegedly expressed a desire to travel to Albany, NY, in order to engage in sexual activity with what he believed was a 13-year old girl.
Corbett explained that authorities in New York anticipated the meeting would occur on June 23rd, but Maloni was unable to travel to Albany on that date because he had been arrested six days earlier, in Canonsburg, Washington County, by agents from the Pennsylvania Attorney General's Child Predator Unit.
Corbett noted that the Pennsylvania and New York cases are extremely similar - in both cases Maloni is accused of using the Internet to approach and sexually proposition what he believed were 13-year old girls. He is also accused of describing in graphic detail the sex acts he wished to engage in.
Corbett said that criminal charges related to both the Pennsylvania and New York cases involving Maloni have been consolidated in Lawrence County.
Maloni is now charged with two counts of attempted unlawful contact with a minor and two counts of solicitation to commit unlawful contact with a minor, all first-degree felonies which are each punishable by up to 20 years in prison and $25,000 fines.
Additionally, Maloni is charged with two counts of unlawful contact with a minor (related to sexual offenses), a second-degree felony punishable by up to 10 years in prison and $25,000 fines, along with four counts of unlawful contact with a minor (obscene or sexual performance) and three counts of criminal use of a computer, all third-degree felonies punishable by up to seven years in prison and $15,000 fines.
Maloni was preliminarily arraigned today on all charges before New Castle Magisterial District Judge Scott McGrath. Bail was set at $10,000 straight. Maloni is prohibited from using the Internet or leaving the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania without prior court permission. He was also ordered to undergo a mental health evaluation and is prohibited from having any unsupervised contact with minors.
A preliminary hearing is scheduled for July 3rd, at 9:30 a.m., in Lawrence County Central Court.
Corbett said that Maloni is the 147th Internet predator to be arrested in Pennsylvania by the Attorney General's Child Predator Unit.
(A person charged with a crime is presumed innocent until proven guilty.)
http://www.attorneygeneral.gov/press.aspx?id=3737
