Convict violated probation for obscene internet contact

A Canton man has been sentenced to custody for 180 days after admitting that, while on probation for obscene Internet contact, he violated probation conditions by chatting online with children, prosecutors said.

Mahesh Patel, who is serving a nine-year probated sentence after doing one year in prison, soon will go to a probation detention center in which he will have to serve every day of the sentence, officials said. While awaiting bed space in a detention center Patel is being held at the Fayette County Jail.

Probation detention centers are minimum security facilities for confining probationers. They have highly structured activities with regimented schedules that include supervised unpaid work and programming geared toward making them successful in the community, according to the Georgia Department of Corrections website.

Patel was originally arrested in January 2007 by the Peachtree City Police Department for transmitting pornographic images via the Internet to a girl he thought was 13 years old. The “girl” turned out to be an undercover Peachtree City police officer.

After winning an appeal relating to comments made by the presiding judge, Patel pled guilty in August to one count of obscene Internet contact. He was sentenced to one year in prison with credit for time served followed by nine years on probation.

In the most recent incident, Patel revealed in a polygraph that he had recently chatted online with minors. Though the conversations were not of a sexual nature they were a violation of the conditions of his probation, prosecutors said.

The court also added conditions to Patel’s probation that prohibit him from using a computer or the Internet at all; another condition forbids him from having any unsupervised contact with minors.

Had Patel been sentenced to prison he would have been eligible for parole so he may not have served the full 180-day sentence, prosecutors said.

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