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Bond set in Web sex case

By LEE WILLIAMS
lwilliams@TheCitizenNews.com

A Fayette County judge agreed with the state’s recommendation to set a high bond for a Turner Broadcasting employee who was caught Thursday in a sting operation geared to keep pedophiles away from children.

On Friday, Fayette County Magistrate Judge Joe Tinsley ordered 29-year-old Christopher Ryan Cola of Atlanta to post a $70,000 bond as a condition of his release from the Fayette County Jail.

Cola, who faces charges of computer pornography and violating the Child Exploitation Prevention Act of 1999 after his arrest at a Peachtree City Wal-Mart, also was ordered to steer clear of any Internet accessible electronic equipment and children under the age of 16.

Cola is the seventh person to be captured during an undercover sting operation orchestrated by the Peachtree City Police Department.

Cola met an undercover police officer who was posing as a 15-year-old girl on the Internet and allegedly propositioned her for sex.

Cola, a former Burbank, Calif., resident who moved to Atlanta two weeks ago to take a job as a network operator with Turner Broadcasting, assumed that he would meet up with the girl at Wal-Mart. He did, but Peachtree City police officers weren’t far behind and quickly closed in for the arrest.

Fayette County Assistant District Attorney Randy Coggin presented the state’s case and argued that since Cola had no ties to the community he should get a high bond to ensure he would show up for his day in court.

Coggin indicated shortly after Cola’s bond hearing that it’s scary to think that these are the types of people children are subjected to when they surf the World Wide Web. Coggin rejected claims the sting operation is a form of entrapment.

“These are people who I guess think that computers are anonymous and they are free to solicit children without any danger, so I think they are a real threat,” Coggin said.