Chat room sting nets suspect

Jace Radke

Thursday, Oct. 3, 2002 | 9:58 a.m.

A California man who allegedly came to Las Vegas last week to have sex with a teenage girl he met in an Internet chat room has been arrested by the FBI.

Marc Stephen Hood, 42, was arrested on Sept. 26 in a Las Vegas casino, where he had arranged to meet what he thought would be a 14-year-old girl, who turned out to be an FBI agent, FBI spokesman Daron Borst said.

Hood of Chino, Calif., is facing a charges of interstate travel with intent to have sex with a juvenile and enticement of a juvenile to engage in a sexual act, according to a federal indictment filed Wednesday.

An FBI agent posing as a 14-year-old girl on a chat site was first contacted by Hood on July 10, U.S. District Court documents state. Hood allegedly solicited sex from the undercover agent during the first Internet chat, and over the next two months made contact via the Internet several more times.

The indictment states that on Sept. 25 Hood told the undercover agent that he would be coming to Las Vegas and wanted to meet at a casino.

Hood is facing up to 15 years in prison and a $250,000 fine on each count if he is found guilty, said Natalie Collins, spokeswoman for the U.S. attorney for Nevada.

Hood is the third person arrested this year by the FBI as part of an undercover Internet operation.