LAYTON -- A Layton man who works as a police officer in West Valley City has been jailed after police said an Internet sting caught him propositioning someone he thought was a 15-year-old boy.
Douglas L. Paulsen, 41, was arrested Tuesday at the Layton Hills Mall at a rendezvous he had arranged with a police detective posing as the 15-year-old boy online.
Paulsen was booked into Davis County Jail and held without bail.
Paulsen is a school resource officer at Hunter High School in West Valley City. Such officers are assigned an office in schools to counsel teens in avoiding high-risk behaviors as a means of crime prevention.
Paulsen appeared before Judge John R. Morris in 2nd District Court in Farmington on Wednesday, charged with six third-degree felony counts of dealing in materials harmful to a minor and one count of class A misdemeanor enticing a minor over the Internet.
The sting involved a Layton police detective who created an online identity as a 15-year-old boy, said Police Lt. Quinn Moyes. Paulsen e-mailed the detective a number of pornographic materials, Moyes said, then agreed to meet "the boy" at the mall.
The sting operation was part of the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force, an ongoing effort between local police and the Utah Attorney General's Office.
Officers spend four- and six-hour shifts trolling the Internet, posing as underage male and female teens, to attract online predators. Most arrests have been of males.
In Paulsen's case, said Police Sgt. Jason Hinjosa, "The adult subject negotiated with the detective to meet at the mall. The plan was to travel from there to another location to engage in a sex act."
The correspondence between Paulsen and the undercover detective began in early September, he said.
Hinojosa said Paulsen was arrested at 4:45 p.m. Tuesday at the mall. "He did not resist arrest."
On the rarity of ICAC arresting one of their own, Hinojosa said, "It happens every once in a while."
A felony conviction typically ends a policeman's career, resulting in loss of certification from the state's Police Officer Standards and Training division.
Updated 12:18 a.m.
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Layton man charged with sending porn to teen in sting
LAYTON -- A Layton man has been charged after sending pornography over the Internet to a person he thought was a teenage boy.
Layton police arrested Douglas L. Paulsen, 41, on Tuesday at the Layton Hills Mall after an undercover detective agreed to meet him there, officers said.
Paulsen appeared in Farmington's 2nd District Court charged with six third-degree felonies dealing in materials harmful to a minor and one count of class A misdemeanor of enticing a minor over the Internet.
A detective posed as a 15-year-old boy, said Layton Police Lt. Quinn Moyes.
Paulsen e-mailed the detective a number of pornographic materials, Moyes said, then agreed to meet "the boy" at the mall. He was arrested and booked in the Davis County Jail Tuesday on no bail.
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