(AP) — PITTSBURGH - A former Pennsylvania state Senate staffer has been arrested on charges that he wanted to engage in *** acts with a 15-year-old boy while dressed in a panda costume, according to state Attorney General Tom Corbett.
Alan David Berlin, 40, who worked for Republican Sen. Jane Orie, used Internet chats and instant messages to proposition the Harrisburg-area boy, including talking about dressing up in animal costumes and engaging in various *** acts, Corbett said in a statement Friday.
Berlin approached the boy and in online talks in April and May, discussed various *** acts with the boy and proposed that Berlin travel to the boy’s home and have *** with him in the back yard while his parents slept, Corbett said.
Berlin also asked for **** photos of the boy and offered to arrange a meeting between the boy and another man, offering to get them a hotel room if Berlin could take pictures of them having ***.
Berlin was charged Thursday with attempted ****** exploitation of children, unlawful contact with a minor and criminal solicitation to commit ****** abuse of children. He was being held Friday in the Dauphin County Jail on $250,000 bail. It’s not clear whether he has an attorney, and a listed number could not be located.
Orie said in a statement that Berlin was fired Friday. Berlin, who was first hired in the Senate in 1993, made $57,430.
Attorney general spokesman Nils Frederiksen said investigators believe Berlin sent some messages using his work computer, which authorities seized.
Authorities also found a wolf costume and cat-type costume while searching Berlin’s home, but the panda costume has not been found.
Berlin used the costumes as an entree to solicit the boy, Frederiksen said.
“It’s one thing to be interested in the furry culture, it’s another thing to make arrangements to have *** with a teenage boy,” Frederiksen said. “This is not online fantasy or anything like that. This is real solicitation to have ****** contact with a boy and you can’t do that.”
