"He was involved in a situation that there really is no excuse for. There is no way to minimize the need to protect children from themselves . . . and from others who would prey on them."
The second of 28 men rounded up last year during a televised sting of would-be sexual predators was sentenced Friday to three years in state prison.
Superior Court Judge Barbara Ann Villano imposed the prison term on Howard Thornton III for child-luring related to his online solicitation of a person he thought was a 12-year-old girl, during an undercover probe that was televised last summer on "To Catch a Predator" series on Dateline NBC.
Thornton, 28, a warehouse manager from Danielsville, Pa., and father of 6-year-old twin girls, admitted to Villano on Dec. 10 that he sent e-mails to someone he thought was a 12-year-old girl between March 17 and March 31. The e-mails conveyed that he wanted to meet the girl for sex.
The person with whom Thornton was communicating actually was a decoy from the organization Perverted Justice, which joined forces last year with law enforcement and Dateline NBC to undertake an investigation targeting child predators.
In pleading guilty to child luring, Thornton admitted that on March 31, he traveled to Mantoloking to meet the person he thought was a 12-year-old girl, but turned around before reaching the beach house where they had agreed to have a sexual encounter.
In a letter written by Thornton to the judge and read aloud Friday by his attorney, Thornton said he knew what he was doing was "completely wrong," and that while en route to the house, he had a change of heart and "I turned around and attempted to return to my family."
Thornton apologized in the letter, read in court by Deputy Assistant Public Defender Michael Vito, and said that he misses his daughters "more than anything in the world."
Vito, saying that Thornton received a certificate of achievement from a counseling program for sexual offenders at the Ocean County Jail, asked Villano to impose a sentence of probation and time already served since his arrest on March 31.
"It's unimaginable the shame he feels for what he's done," Vito said of his client.
Assistant Ocean County Prosecutor Hillary Bryce maintained it was Thornton's fear of getting caught, not a moral breakthrough, that prompted him to turn away from the Mantoloking beach house on the day of his arrest.
"He turned around after seeing officers at that house," Bryce said.
In his car were condoms, a Web cam and other "troublesome" items, she said.
"The potential harm this kind of activity can cause can not be overstated," Bryce said, arguing for a five-year prison term to send a message of deterrence to others who would consider similar activities.
Thornton apologized for his behavior and said he wants to continue in counseling.
"I have to say, I have been impressed with his remorse," Villano said. "I can feel the shame that he communicates. I have been somewhat taken with how deeply shameful he is, how deeply remorseful he is."
But, Villano added, "He was involved in a situation that there really is no excuse for. There is no way to minimize the need to protect children from themselves . . . and from others who would prey on them."
Under the sentence Villano imposed, Thornton will be subject to lifetime parole supervision and to the reporting requirements of Megan's Law.
He was one of 28 people rounded up in the sting. Another of the defendants, Kazuo Akutsu, 37, a salesman from Manhattan was sentenced two weeks ago to three years in prison for attempted sexual assault.
Yet another, Ernest C. Timmons, 33, an Air Force mechanic from Spanaway, Wash., died Sept. 7 of natural causes while in custody.
Charges are pending against 25 others — all accused of using the Internet to set up would-be sexual liaisons with a child and then going to the Mantoloking beach house to carry out the plan.
Instead, each of the defendants was met at the beach house by "To Catch A Predator" host Chris Hansen and police.
Dateline NBC televised the arrests in two segments in July.
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