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Michael Vance Culpepper, 56, of Walkersville, is facing life in prison after being busted by an undercover officer posing as a 13-year-old girl online, then doubling down.
According to his guilty plea, in April and May 2023, Culpepper used mobile phones and online applications to persuade, induce, entice and coerce two victims whom he believed to be 13- and 14-year-old to engage in sexual activity.
The probe into Culpepper was launched in April 2023, when the state police’s Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force was conducting an undercover online investigation on a social networking site.
Prosecutors say that Culpepper used the Internet and his phones to exchange sexually explicit messages and request sexually explicit images.
He further encouraged the "victim" to hide the conversations from her parents, writing "you DEFINITELY need to delete these texts when we are done.”
Culpepper scheduled a plan to drive 50 miles to meet up with the purported teen at a restaurant in Hanover on May 8, 2023, where he was met by officers, not his underage victim, and arrested.
He was released by a judge the following day on the condition he not have any contact with minors; however, Culpepper also ran afoul of that order.
According to court documents, Culpepper initiated a conversation with a 14-year-old girl online, enticing her into sexually explicit conversations after sending illicit photos of himself in an effort to get the teen to produce nude photos of herself for him.
He later arranged a meet with the second girl with the intention of engaging in sexual activity.
Less than three weeks after his release, prosecutors say that Culpepper picked up the second girl near her home, drove around for approximately an hour before stopping at a park.
"Culpepper used ice cream, money, a hotel room and vaping devices to entice the teen to engage in sexual contact."
The girl refused, but Culpepper reportedly continued to use the Internet to entice a teen to meet and engage in sex acts.
When he is sentenced, Culpepper faces life in prison and a lifetime of supervised release for coercion and enticement of a minor.
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