Bedford County police conduct ongoing sting

Man charged with dealing in child porn

The arrest was the result of Internet communication over several weeks with a man who contacted an Internet undercover officer..

By Matt Chittum, The Roanoke Times

    The Bedford County Sheriff's Office arrested another man on charges of distributing child pornography Wednesday as a result of its ongoing Internet sting operation, called Blue Ridge Thunder.

   Edward Earl Hargon IV, 31, of Harrisonburg was arrested about 2:30 p.m. Wednesday in a parking lot, where Sheriff Mike Brown said Hargon believed he was meeting a 13-year-old boy for a sexual rendezvous.

   Hargon was charged with distribution of sexually explicit material for transmitting child pornography over the Internet, Brown said.  Ad additional charge of sexual solicitation of a minor has not been placed but is "imminent," he said.

   The arrest was the result of Internet communication over several weeks with a man who contacted Internet undercover officer Sergio Kopelev, Brown said.

   "At some point, it turned to sexually explicit images being transmitted," Brown said.

   The man eventually initiated other conversations in which he expressed a desire to have a sexual liaison with the person he thought was a 13-year-old boy, according to Brown.

   The man said several times that he was coming to Bedford, but never showed up, Brown said.  But another e-mail message arrived about noon Wednesday in which the man said he would arrive in Bedford County within a few hours.

   Deputies waited in a parking lot off U.S. 460 until they recognized the man from a picture of himself he had sent via the Internet, Brown said.

   Since February 1998, Sheriff's Office investigators have surfed online chat rooms for pedophiles.  The investigation have led to the arrest and conviction of several men across the country for transmitting child pornography by e-mail.

   Most recently, the operation led to the arrest of a one-time aide to former West Virginia Gov. Gaston Caperton.  Tom Rice, 58, of Martinsburg, W.Va., was charged with two counts of attempting to take indecent liberties with a child under 14 and one count of attempting crimes against nature with a child under 14.

   Investigators said he came to Bedford believing he was meeting a 13-year-old boy for sex.  Rice has not yet been tried.