Reporters become cops, mix in sexualperversion during May ratings sweeps

Is it just me, or do you find something creepy about this story from JS Online's Daywatch:

MONDAY, May 15, 2006, 3:28 p.m.
By David Doege

Five charged in TV station sex sting

Waukesha - Five men were charged with felonies Monday after they arrested over the weekend when they allegedly fell prey to an Internet sex sting by an investigative team for a local television station and the Waukesha County Sheriff's Department.

Three men were arrested Friday and two Saturday after they had sex chats over the Internet with personnel from WTMJ-TV (Channel 4) who were posing as juvenile girls and subsequently journeyed to an unoccupied home for sexual rendezvous with the girls, Assistant District Attorney Brad Schimel said. Instead of meeting the girls at the home, Schimel said, the men were confronted by sheriff's investigators and arrested.

Charged Monday with using a computer to facilitate a child sex crime were: Adam C Miller, 22, of Germantown; Geoffrey P. Roehrig, 22, of Appleton; Sean M Young, 31, of Greenfield; David C Ackley, 47, of Hartland; and Seda Som, 23, of Chicago.

The sting conducted last week was similar to an effort mounted in April 2005 by personnel from WTMJ. Four men were charged after that undertaking which station personnel conducted without the assistance of law enforcement.

That time, according to court records, the men were surprised by a WTMJ reporter and a photographer who confronted them about their activities after they arrived at a Menomonee Falls home where station personnel told the men to meet them.

The station subsequently shared the contents of their online chats and videotapes with Menomonee Falls police and the Waukesha County district attorney's office.

Last weekend, according to sheriff's department Detective Steve Pederson, station personnel and department investigators agreed in advance to work together in the effort.

I know it's sweeps month and everyone's after ratings, but having news people participate in what sounds a lot like entrapment somehow seems wrong. Yes, what these guys hoped to do is disgusting and deserves punishment -- but not from a TV station.

The station has done its own peep show with perverts before, luring them to phony rendezvous and ambushing them with a camera. The cops have also gone online to identify and apprehend Internet predators when they come for their "dates."

But there's something about them teaming up that makes me a little queasy. I know WTMJ's John Mercure likes to play the on-camera role of tough guy/cop, and seems obsessed with sex. If it's not sexual predators,it's a sexual assault case or else it's naughty items on display at Spencer's Gifts.

Here's his tough guy meets deadbeat dad story.

I don't know that he was the reporter on this weekend sting, but I would bet you $10 to a doughnut that he was involved. It's right up his alley.

But isn't there a line between reporting on police work and doing it? If not, shouldn't there be?

Can you imagine Mike Gousha posing online as a 14-year-old girl and then going out with a camera to surprise the slimeball he's been e-mailing with, then filming his arrest? No wonder he's leaving. Mercure, apparently, is the wave of the future at the new WTMJ-TV. It doesn't make me want to "Touch Today's TMJ4." Not until the station washes its hands, at least. How about you?