He was arrested on Nov. 2, 2003 and now Ontario, Canada resident Steven John Waterman has finally been sentenced to prison for arranging to engage in sexual acts with a 14-year-old Orion Township boy he propositioned over the Internet.
Oakland County Sheriff’s Department Detective Jeff Hamm of the Computer Crimes Unit said the case began when an Orion Township mother called the Orion substation to say that her son was talking to a man over the Internet.
‘The 14-year-old boy was talking to (Waterman) on Yahoo, and they talked about meeting for sex and the mom found out about it,? said Hamm. ‘With the mother’s permission, we continued talking to (Waterman) using the boy’s screen name.?
The Computer Crimes Unit managed to arrange to meet with Waterman, 42, at an Orion Township fast food establishment, with Waterman believing he was meeting the 14-year-old boy to go somewhere to engage in sexual acts. OCSD deputies were waiting for him and arrested him.
Waterman was sentenced to 3-20 years in prison by an Oakland County Circuit Court judge on Feb. 3.
‘He pleaded guilty so there was no trial,? Hamm said. ‘He’s already been sent to the Department of Corrections.?
Hamm said since its inception in 1999, the Computer Crimes Unit has been highly successful.
‘We’ve been involved in Orion Township cases a couple of times,? he added. ?(In 1999) it was just a sergeant…now it’s grown to two investigators and a sergeant.?
The unit usually works on cases by assuming the child’s screen name to lure the predator to a location. Hamm said this method has been very successful.
‘We have a 100 percent conviction rate,? Hamm added.