OKLAHOMA CITY man ordered to stand trial on six counts linked to an Internet sting

<br>TULSA, Okla. (AP) _ A Tulsa County judge rejected allegations of entrapment and ordered an Oklahoma City man to stand trial on six counts linked to an Internet sting in which police posed as a 14-year-old

Thursday, July 5th 2001, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

TULSA, Okla. (AP) _ A Tulsa County judge rejected allegations of entrapment and ordered an Oklahoma City man to stand trial on six counts linked to an Internet sting in which police posed as a 14-year-old girl.

Special District Judge Allen Klein found enough evidence to support five counts of lewd proposals to a child against David William Short. A count of exhibiting obscene material to a minor has been filed against Short also.

Short's attorney, Allen Cowdery, argued Tuesday that ``my client was entrapped to do an act he wasn't predisposed to do.''

``There never was a minor child involved,'' and it was a ``legal impossibility'' for Short to complete a crime ``because he was never talking to a minor under the age of 16,'' Cowdery said in a brief.

Short is accused of making three lewd proposals to a child over the Internet and two lewd proposals by telephone. He is free on bail.

Short allegedly engaged in Internet chat-room conversations with undercover Tulsa police, who were posing as a juvenile girl. Arrangements were made for a face-to-face meeting at a Tulsa mall, Assistant District Attorney Mickey Hawkins said.

Short drove from Oklahoma City to Tulsa and was arrested at the mall Jan. 17 after he approached a female officer who posed as the girl, Hawkins said.

As for allegations of entrapment, Hawkins said that in e-mail messages and recorded phone conversations, it was always Short who initiated the topic of sex.

He ``pressed for sexual intercourse'' with a person he believed to be age 14, and under those circumstances, an entrapment defense is not viable, Hawkins said.

In an unrelated case involving a similar Tulsa police sting, former Colorado police officer Joseph Albert Ellsworth was sentenced last year to 15 years in prison after he pleaded guilty to attempted lewd proposals to a child, attempted lewd molestation and attempting to distribute or exhibit obscene material.