Sentenced to 2 years probation for felony attempted child solicitation

A commercial pilot out of LaPorte (IN) was sentenced on Friday in that town's Circuit Court to two years probation for felony attempted child solicitation. The pilot was arrested in late 2002 after arriving at a home near the airport where he worked, thinking he was to pick up a 13-year-old girl for sex.

John Landwerlen, 37, was sentenced to two years of electronic monitoring after a plea agreement spared him from what could have been an eight year prison sentence. According to the South Bend Tribune in Indiana, the agreement allows him to continue to fly for his employer on corporate business flights.

Landwerlen was online as "Pilot9001" using a computer at the Laporte Municipal Airport when he began corresponding with LaPorte police Detective Adam Klimczak. Klimczak was "undercover" on the Internet, pretending to be a 13 year old girl using the handle "littlebritty21." His exchanges were pleasant at first, but soon turned to sex.

According to court documents, Landwerlen suggested to the "girl" that he would drive to her home, and then would take her to the airport where he would have sex with her in his office. The offer was accepted by the Detective, who set up a meeting at a local apartment complex some ten minutes from the airport.

Sure enough, Landwerlen drove to the apartment complex, but rather than finding a 13 year old girl, he would himself surrounded by police, and was immediately placed under arrest.

So far, the LaPorte police department has snagged about a dozen other men trying to prey on young girls on the Internet in this manner.

FMI: http://www.northwestindiana.com/cities/laporte/laporte.htm