FBI Media Release
Special Agent in Charge Manuel E. Mora
660 Mesa Hills Drive    El Paso, TX 79912 
To: All print and broadcast media
Contact:  Special Agent Andrea Simmons, 915.832.5373

October 5, 2007

Oregon man arrested for cyber crime

Richard Hoyt Wales, 59 years old, of Medford, Oregon, was arrested yesterday for traveling interstate to meet a child for sexual purposes. Wales was arrested in El Paso by members of the West Texas Cyber Crimes Task Force as part of an undercover operation.

In September, Wales began an online chat with an undercover agent posing as the mother of a minor child. Wales expressed a desire to travel to El Paso to meet the minor child and have sex with both the mother and the minor child. Wales then traveled to El Paso where he was arrested for coercion and enticement of a minor for the purpose of engaging in sexually explicit conduct, a violation of 18 U.S.C. 2422(b).

The West Texas Cyber Crimes Task Force includes members from the Federal Bureau of Investigation, El Paso Police Department and Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Wales’ initial appearance before a U.S. Magistrate Judge will be this afternoon.