Infoseek executive arrested on solicitation charges

 

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Patrick Naughton, the Infoseek executive vice president in charge of Walt Disney Company's Web sites, has been arrested and charged with using the Internet to solicit sex with a minor.

The Los Angeles Times reported that Naughton, 34, was arrested Thursday on the Santa Monica Pier in California, where he had been lured by electronic messages from a male FBI agent posing as a 13-year-old girl.

A Disney spokeswoman declined to comment on the matter. An Infoseek spokeswoman today confirmed Naughton's arrest and added he is "no longer an employee of Infoseek."

"We are shocked and disturbed by the arrest," she said.

Until the arrest, Naughton had overall responsibility for the Go Network, the Internet portal for Disney's online businesses. Earlier he helped create the Internet programming language Java as an employee of Sun Microsystems.

Burbank, California-based Disney said in July it will buy the remaining stake of Sunnyvale, California-based Infoseek, the fourth-largest Internet search service, that it doesn't already own.

Naughton did not enter a plea and was ordered to post a $100,000 bond at a hearing in federal court Friday. His arraignment was set for October 12.

According to the Los Angeles Times the investigation began in March when FBI special agent Bruce Applin visited an Internet chat room known as a place where men solicit underage girls. In an affidavit, Applin said he repeatedly identified himself as a 13-year-old girl in messages with Naughton's "hotseattle" identity.

In subsequent communications, according to the FBI, Naughton directed agents to a Web site that he said had a picture of his genitals, the paper reported.

On Thursday night Naughton approached a female undercover sheriff's deputy near a roller coaster on the pier and wearing a green backpack, as had been agreed upon, the affidavit states. He was taken into custody after asking the deputy to meet him on the beach, it said.

When agents seized his portable computer Thursday night, Naughton told them that "there were sexually explicit images of children on the laptop," according to the affidavit.

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