Tim Ryan, tryan@shawanoleader.com
A Shawano man arrested as part of an Internet sex sting operation last year was sentenced Monday to five years in prison as part of a plea agreement.
Richard E. Denty, 34, pleaded no contest in July to a felony count of using a computer to facilitate a sex crime. He was accused of arranging to meet what he believed was a 15-year-old boy for sex.
The plea agreement called for the state to cap its prison recommendation at five years, the minimum penalty under state statutes.
However, Shawano-Menominee County District Attorney Greg Parker on Monday also asked Judge James Habeck to impose an additional 10 years of extended supervision after Denty is released from prison.
The Department of Corrections, in its pre-sentence investigation, had recommended five to six years in prison and three to four years of extended supervision.
Habeck imposed the recommended prison sentence but imposed only one year and three months of extended supervision.
Denty came to the attention of authorities after posting ads on Craigslist seeking a “casual encounter,” according to the criminal complaint.
He was contacted online by an investigator posing as a 15-year-old boy, and a meeting was arranged in the parking lot of the Crawford Center in Shawano.
Shawano County sheriff’s deputies staked out the rendezvous spot while a Shawano police officer posed as the 15-year-old. Denty was taken into custody when he arrived.
According to the criminal complaint, Denty had a pair of handcuffs and a lubricant in his pockets when he was arrested. He told authorities he set up the meeting with the intention of discouraging the boy from meeting strangers for sex.
After Monday’s hearing, Parker said Denty is a child predator, whether he admits it or not.
“Mr. Denty and people like him must be removed from society for the protection of our children,” Parker said, “and these people need to be placed on lengthy periods of supervision in order to monitor their whereabouts at all times and to continue to hold the possibility of further prison time over their heads.”
Denty was one of 16 people in six northeast Wisconsin counties taken into custody in September as a result of Operation Black Veil II.
The operation originated with the U.S. Department of Justice’s Internet Crimes against Children (ICAC) task force and involved undercover investigators working with local law enforcement to make online contact with suspected offenders.