ALTOONA – A convicted Northern Iowa sex offender was duped by cops posing as a teen into thinking he had a chance at a steamy hotel rendezvous, but was nabbed upon arrival.
Reports indicate that a man convicted of a sex crime in Northern Iowa attempted to lure a teen to hotel, but cops were behind the entire plot. The incident took place on Tuesday, March 27, in Altoona. Police had been in an online chat prior, hamming it up with 38-year-old Mitchell Keith Russell (pictured at top), a convicted sex offender out of Hamilton county, convicted there in 2015 for third-degree sexual abuse of a minor female teen. Russell was led to believe, reportedly, that a 13-year-old girl was waiting for him in an Altoona motel, after he sent x-rated materials and made sex talk with a cop posing as the child decoy.
Cops nabbed Russell at the hotel, far from his home in Fort Dodge, as he arrived Tuesday to allegedly carry out his fantasy. Records show he is now charged with:
– sexual exploitation of a minor-cause to engage in an act, a Class B felony
– enticing a minor under 16 for a sexual purpose, a Class D felony
– four counts of telephone dissemination of obscene material to a minor, each an aggravated misdemeanor
– sex offender registration violation-providing false information, an aggravated misdemeanor
Russell is being held in the Polk County Jail on a $250,000 cash-only bond. A judge imposed a no-contact order on him, and he will face a preliminary hearing at 8 AM on April 5.