Saturday January 12th, 2002

Internet sex sting leads to
prison sentence

By ROBERT BOCZKIEWICZ
The Pueblo Chieftain

DENVER - A New York City man caught in an
Internet sting by Pueblo sheriff's officers in 2000 was
sentenced Friday to a year in prison for coming to
Pueblo to have sex with a juvenile.

Robert Henry Dupes was sentenced by U.S. District
Judge Richard P. Matsch.

After receiving a complaint that a minor had been
solicited on the Internet for sex, sheriff's detective
Robert Miller posed on the Internet as a mother
seeking a man to educate her "curious" 13-year-old
daughter about sex.

According to the plea agreement Dupes signed, he
was one of numerous adults who responded,
expressing interest in having sex with minors. He and
Miller, who maintained his subterfuge, communicated
for about six weeks on the Internet.

When Dupes, 52, came to Pueblo to have sex with
the non-existent 13-year-old daughter, a woman
officer posing as the mother met Dupes at a hotel,
where he was arrested.

U.S. Customs Service agent Mike Nasca worked
with the sheriff's unit on Internet crimes against
children and Dupes was charged with traveling
interstate to have sex with a minor.

He pleaded guilty and agreed to forfeit ownership of
his computer and a digital camera to the federal
government.

In the meantime, he was sentenced in federal court in
New York City to 27 months in prison for
possession of child pornography. That term is to be
served in addition to the one-year sentence imposed
in Denver.

Assistant U.S. attorneys Stephanie Villafuerte and
Jennifer Mardosz prosecuted Dupes who was
represented by Janine Yunker, an assistant federal
public defender.

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