Clark

CRANBERRY TWP — A Texas man is accused of setting up a meeting here to have sex with someone who he believed was a 13-year-old girl.

He flew from his home to Pittsburgh only to be met by township police and agents from the state attorney general's Child Predator Unit.

Billy Elvin Clark, 62, of Merkel, Texas, allegedly used an Internet chat room in late March to make contact with an undercover agent from the Child Predator Unit who was posing as a teenager.

Clark is charged with two counts of solicitation to commit unlawful contact with a minor, both first-degree felonies and two counts of unlawful sexual contact with a minor and three counts of attempted unlawful sexual contact with a minor, both second-degree felonies, along with seven counts of criminal use of a communications facility, all third-degree felonies.

Clark was preliminarily arraigned Monday and is being held in the Butler County Jail, Bail is set at $500,000.

According to the criminal complaint, Clark allegedly told the agent that he was looking for a "young girlfriend" and discussed traveling to Pittsburgh to meet her, offering to buy her a digital camera and sexy underwear and expressing a desire to "teach" her about sex.

On Monday, Clark allegedly asked the girl to call him on a cell phone. During that call, Clark allegedly told the girl that he had just flown from Texas to Pittsburgh, and would meet her at a pre-arranged location in the Cranberry area after school.

Agents from Attorney General Tom Corbett's office and township police arrested Clark a short time later, when he arrived at the meeting place.

Agents used a warrant to search Clark's rental vehicle, along with a motel room, and seized a laptop computer, three cell phones, a computer webcam, a digital camera and a GPS unit.

Information about the arrest was shared with the Merkel Police Department and Taylor County Sheriff in Merkel, Texas. Those authorities searched Clark's accounting business and home.