Online sting ends in arrest

Police found James Handsaker inside his in-laws' North Platte, Neb., mobile home Tuesday morning, clad only in underwear as he chatted online with a La Vista detective posing as a 13-year-old girl. Handsaker's 5-year-old daughter had answered the door.

By evening, the 35-year-old North Platte man was sitting inside Sarpy County Jail, wearing an orange jumpsuit and facing a single charge of online enticement by electronic communication device.

The arrest concluded a six-week investigation that began when Handsaker allegedly initiated a string of sexually explicit online conversations with the undercover detective posing as a seventh-grade girl.

Handsaker repeatedly suggested that the two meet, La Vista Police Chief Robert Lausten said. "He wanted to hook up with her."

Police obtained an arrest warrant for Handsaker early last week. It was the La Vista Police Department's first arrest under a bill passed by the Nebraska Legislature this year that makes it easier to prosecute people who use electronic devices to sexually exploit children.

The new law also contains tougher penalties for those convicted of online enticement — a minimum sentence of three years in prison and a maximum of 50 years.

Forensics experts are digging through the contents of Handsaker's desktop computer, which was seized by authorities, looking for additional evidence.

"There may be additional victims that this guy was talking to," Lausten said.

• Contact the writer: 444-1068, johnny.perez@owh.com