Editors Note: This article was originally published in the Feb. 7, 2024 issue of the Chronicle Progress. Some information may be outdated.
A Fillmore man ensnared in a sex sting last year has been sentenced.
Russell George Crosland, 61, is sentenced to serve 48 months of supervised probation, register as a sex offender and complete required treatment, commit no further law violations, and undergo court-mandated assessments and therapy, after pleading guilty to enticing a minor via internet or text, a second-degree felony.
Crosland entered his plea on Sept. 12 of last year. He was arrested on Feb. 23, 2023 at an apartment complex in Salt Lake County by members of the Federal Bureau of Investigation Child Exploitation and Human Trafficking Task Force after attending a high school basketball game at Salt Lake Community College, according to documents filed in Third District Court.
Crosland had allegedly started an online conversation on Feb. 8 with someone he presumed was a 13-year-old girl named “Dixie.” He allegedly told the girl he lived in Fillmore and that he was old enough to be her grandfather, but allegedly began to send messages of a suggestive nature.
Eventually, Crosland allegedly said was planning to visit Salt Lake County and asked to meet her. Court records suggest more lewd comments were shared by the suspect ahead of the meeting and his arrest.
Crosland was under surveillance by the time he drove to Salt Lake Community College, court records show. He allegedly even chatted with “Dixie” during the basketball game he travelled to watch.
“Agent located Crosland at the game and his vehicle in the parking lot. At the conclusion of the game, Agents observed Crosland leave the arena, get into his vehicle, stop at a gas station, and then enter an apartment complex, where he had planned to meet the UC (undercover agent),” a probable cause statement sworn out in Crosland’s criminal case states.
Once Crosland was arrested he admitted to talking online with the person he thought was the 13-year-old girl. The probable cause statement says Crosland admitted to stopping at a gas station and buying condoms with the intent to have sex with the “girl” at her apartment complex.
Crosland was one of about a dozen men arrested during a 10-day period surrounding the NBA All-Star weekend and was arrested as part of Operation Technical Foul, a federal, state and local law enforcement effort to catch online child predators, involving
