Three men arrested in Pocatello in undercover operation and charged with child enticement
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POCATELLO — Three men have been charged separately with online enticement of a child after being arrested in Pocatello earlier this month.
These arrests were made through an undercover operation conducted by the Idaho Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Pocatello Police Department, announced by a press release from the Office of the Attorney General.
Abu Harris (24), Tyler Earle (32) and Clint Lusk (33) were all arrested on Nov. 7.
“This is a great example of teamwork and what can be accomplished when we are all mission aligned,” Pocatello Police Chief Roger Schei said. “If you commit acts like this, I promise we will find you and put you in jail. We will do everything we can to protect our most valuable asset — our children.”
Harris and Lusk were both charged with one count of enticing a child through use of the internet, while Earle was charged federally with attempted coercion and enticement of a minor. If convicted of their alleged crimes, Harris and Lusk could receive a maximum penalty of up to 15 years in prison and/or a $10,000 fine. If Earle is convicted, he faces a minimum penalty of at least 10 years but not more than life.
“Each person arrested in this operation was a predator in our community looking to sexually abuse and exploit a young child,” said Attorney General Raúl Labrador. “The ICAC Task Force and our growing network of ICAC partners and agencies have a singular focus — to remove these child predators from our streets. We will not stop pursuing these criminals.”
According to the Attorney General’s office, law enforcement agencies are still investigating other suspects in this operation.
“(We) are confident this media release isn’t going to compromise our efforts. The other purpose of our media release is a deterrent to those who may consider preying on children,” a spokesperson for the office told EastIdahoNews.com.
The release states that this operation was a combined effort between multiple agencies — including the Office of the Attorney General; U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Idaho; Federal Bureau of Investigation; Idaho State Police; the Pocatello, Idaho Falls, Rupert, Boise, Nampa, Coeur D’Alene and Post Falls Police Departments; and the Bannock, Madison, Bonneville and Canyon County Sheriff’s Offices.
According to court documents, Harris was detained at a Maverick Gas Station where he was allegedly planning to meet a 14-year-old female child, portrayed by a law enforcement investigator on the encrypted-messaging app Telegram. Harris was then taken in for questioning.
“Harris admitted to knowingly sending sexually explicit messages… to who he thought was a 14-year-old child and admitted that he was planning to meet the child for sex that day,” says the court document.
The document also states that he admitted to purchasing lubricant and was planning on bringing marijuana for the child, which was allegedly found on his person in his subsequent arrest.
Lusk was contacted by police while allegedly outside the Red Lion Hotel, waiting to meet a 13-year-old female child, also portrayed by an investigator. Lusk was then transported in for questioning.
After confirming his identity and phone number, Lusk reportedly stated that he had been chatting with a “person” on the Whisper app who said they were 13-years-old, but he didn’t believe that was their real age.
“(Lusk) said that he went to the Red Lion Hotel because he believed the person he was chatting with was probably a ‘19-year-old man’,” the document states.
While Lusk allegedly confirmed he was involved in the messaging and stated the chat was “sexual in nature”, he claimed to have not said anything sexual.
When confronted by officers with previous messages, “(Lusk) would change his story to indicate that he did not remember exactly what he said during the conversation but would not admit to saying the specific things I had mentioned,” states the document.
Earle was arrested at a hotel in Pocatello after allegedly messaging back and forth with an investigator, posing as a stepfather who was sexually abusing his 12-year-old stepson, expressing a desire to join in on the abuse.
According to the document, Earle admitted to messaging the investigator on Grindr, a location-based dating application, and then moved onto text messages, where they made plans to meet and perform sexual abuse on the stepson. The document includes numerous screenshots of the messages allegedly sent by Earle to the investigator.
Earle reportedly expressed “that he had made a mistake” to the authorities interviewing him.
The document states that Earle said, “I can’t believe that I did this, I have never done anything like this before. I am disgusted with myself.”
Currently, Harris, Lusk and Earle all remain in custody. Harris and Lusk are being held in the Bannock County Jail, while Earle is in the Jefferson County Jail.
The bond amount set for Harris is $5,000 while the amount set for Lusk is $100,000. EastIdahoNews.com was not able to obtain the bond amount set for Earle.