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GREENSBORO — Becky, a 13-year-old girl, was home alone and logged into a Yahoo! music chat room one morning in February.

Within seconds, an instant message popped up on her screen:

gothamsdarkknight2003: hi

Becky: hey

gothamsdarkknight2003: asl (age, sex, location)

Becky: 13f ... US u?

gothamsdarkknight2003: 33/m horny

Becky: k ...

gothamsdarkknight2003: wanna (expletive) me?

A minute later, seven message boxes are on her screen, all from men claiming to be grown-ups.

At five minutes, a man in his 40s who says he’s in Kansas City, Mo., sends her pornographic pictures, wondering if she had “tried anything like that before.”

The men want to know what Becky is wearing, her bra size, whether she’s seen male genitalia or had sex before.

Within 10 minutes, she gets invitations to view two Web cams. Both show men performing sexual acts on themselves.

Becky isn’t real. She’s Detective C.L. Overcash, a member of the Piedmont Internet Crimes Against Children task force.

The group was formed about a year ago from area sheriff’s offices to investigate online sexual predators and the trade of child pornography.

“I could have easily been the real 13- or 14-year-old girl who had a way to make it to a meeting location,” said Overcash, a deputy with the Guilford County Sheriff’s Office.

“Say I did want to meet this guy and have sex with him. It all could have happened while my dad is still at work.”

It used to be the playground, schools or churches where predators sought children out.

“In today’s world, it’s the Internet,” Overcash said. “The boogeyman is real, and he lives on the Internet.”

Task force makes impact

It’s been a little more than a year since the Guilford County Sheriff’s Office received about $476,000 from the U.S. Department of Justice to create the Piedmont Internet Crimes Against Children task force.

Deputies from Guilford, Alamance, Forsyth, Randolph and Rockingham counties make up the task force, one of 61 similar groups throughout the country.

“A lot of our offenders are not here. Law enforcement is no longer the 'round up the usual suspects down the street,’” said Randy Jones , spokesman for the Alamance County Sheriff’s Office.

“Crime is not localized anymore. It’s highly mobile and because of technology ... it crosses state lines and you’ve got (to collaborate) to address it.”

They’ve made more than 40 arrests on 430-plus charges that have led to more than 25 successful prosecutions. Many cases are still pending in court.

Among the task force’s arrests:

* Richard Brandon Wells, 31, a Raleigh firefighter who was arrested March 11 after detectives say he talked online with a detective he thought was a 14-year-old girl. Wells allegedly performed sexual acts on a Web cam while talking to the deputy and indicated he was willing to travel for sex.
* Jon Edward Palmieri, 32, a former Wake Forest University assistant baseball coach. He was arrested in August at a local movie theater where he thought he was going to meet a 14-year-old girl he had been talking to online.
* Jeffrey Joe Page, 46, of Burlington who faces more than 100 charges, including second-degree exploitation of a minor, first-degree sex offense and indecent liberties with a minor. The charges involve sexual molestation of a girl under 13 and relate to numerous child pornography images found on Page’s computer.
* Brian Daniel Barker, 42, a former Forsyth County sheriff’s deputy and son of former Forsyth Sheriff Ron Barker . Brian Barker was arrested in December after showing up to meet a 13-year-old girl he had been chatting with online since June, according to court documents. He faces charges of using a computer to solicit a sex act with a minor.
* Richard Norman “Chip” Williams Jr., 52, a former publicist whose clients included several high-profile NASCAR teams. Though his 2006 arrest came before the task force’s creation, it was one of the most high-profile Internet predator investigations thus far in the Triad.

Williams, who is serving more than 20 years in federal prison, was arrested after a Guilford County woman found her 15-year-old daughter had been having sexual conversations online with Williams.

The girl met with Williams when she was 11 and they had several sexual encounters together, according to court records and hearings. Authorities said Williams also had sex with a 12-year-old girl at Guilford Courthouse National Military Park in 2003.

A search of his Mooresville home produced a large volume of child pornography, including photos of him with the first Guilford County girl, according to court records. Williams was arrested after showing up at a local church to meet a young girl created by police to lure him in a sting operation. He pleaded guilty to all charges.

“There’s no stereotypical look for any kind of criminal when it comes down to it,” Overcash said. “Since I’ve been doing this, I’ve arrested everyone from the unemployed and uneducated to corporate executives.”

“We’ve had first timers to a guy that was arrested a previous time for something similar that he had already served time for.”

Stopping predators

For law enforcement, bringing a case against a suspect comes down to being able to prove intent. Arrests have come from conversations lasting less than an hour to as much as several months.

Under the law, an actual meeting isn’t necessary. Prosecutors must show the suspect’s belief they are talking to a child and their intent to perform sexual acts with him or her.

No matter how long an investigation takes and how much evidence officers want to have, Jones said Alamance detectives are ready to act if they think a suspect poses a high risk to a child.

“You may have what the suspect thinks is a 13- or 14-year-old child they are talking to online that’s really a police officer. But we are finding there are 20 to 40 other people online that they are talking to,” he said.

“We are just one of them. What are the odds that some of the others actually are 13- or 14-year-old children? That’s why as soon as we make our case, we move,” Jones said, even if it means a lesser charge.

Investigators routinely go out of their county to make arrests. In out-of-state cases where the suspect isn’t coming here — often their information is forwarded to another agency.

Investigators are trained on specific methods that avoid entrapment and how to ensure what they are doing stays within the realm of the law.

Overcash says predators aren’t just in Internet chat rooms anymore. Facebook, MySpace, video game consoles, cell phones, iPods or anything else with Internet capability have become hunting grounds.

And too much personal information in the wrong place can lead to trouble.

“There might be a picture of you in your volleyball uniform and it might say “Whirlies” — what does that tell you? It says Whirlies here, 15, Greensboro N.C.,” said Overcash, who routinely talks to youth groups about Internet safety.

“Then you post on there (to a friend) 'sounds cool, let’s meet at the Chick-fil-A at Friendly Center on Friday’ — you aren’t necessarily giving specifics, but you are.”

That information entered into a few search engines can quickly lead to a stalking or a kidnapping case.

“They could introduce themselves into your life and swipe you up,” Overcash said.

Stephanie Reese, an assistant Guilford County district attorney, said child sex predators are good at what they do and know the ways to groom a child for their own exploitation.

“They select children at an age when they are really vulnerable,” Reese said. “As a girl, it’s the age where you’re not really 'pretty,’ you’re insecure, you have braces. Then you get someone who approaches them and says, 'Gosh you’re really cool and I like you’ and appeals to their ego and insecurities.”

Stiff price to pay

In most cases, prosecutors say many defendants accused in online sexual chats or the child pornography trade will plead guilty. Many don’t want to endure a public trial and add to the embarrassment and turmoil a trial can cause for their families.

In most cases, the evidence is strong and hard to defend against.

In a federal case, sexual exploitation of a minor or child porn charges bring a minimum of five years in federal prison. More time can be added depending on the specific charge, number of charges, the defendant’s prior record and the severity of the crime.

In state court, a suspect generally will face a variety of four specific charges — two levels of soliciting a child by computer, with or without travel; indecent liberties with a child; and sexual exploitation of a child, Reese said.

The crimes can result in a punishment as lenient as probation to as severe as more than two years in prison.

Each penalty will vary depending on several factors under the state’s structured sentencing guidelines. If the suspect met with and had sex with a child, he or she can face charges with a maximum penalty of life in prison.

“I like to think that every bad guy that travels to meet me. ... It was a child that I saved that day,” Overcash said.

Contact Ryan Seals at 373-7077 or ryan.seals@news-record.com