Horn: George Trivette owned child porn

By Jerry Sena

A local man who pled guilty last month to a federal charge he trolled an Internet chat room to entice a minor to have sex with him, also had child pornography on his computer’s hard drive according to court documents filed with the U.S. District Court.

George Clayton Trivette, Jr., 35, has been in the custody of U.S. marshals since September, but officials haven’t revealed where.

The Marshals Service depends on state and local governments for the jailing of federal prisoners, but policy forbids revealing their whereabouts.

Trivette signed the plea agreement Nov. 4. His sentencing could take place anywhere from 90 to 120 days from then.

The guilty plea could get Trivette anywhere from five to 30 years in federal prison. Trivette also faces a possible $250,000 fine and lifetime probation.

In the plea, Trivette has admitted to the indictment’s allegation that he “knowingly [attempted] to persuade, induce, entice or coerce a person under 18 years of age to engage in any sexual act for which any person may be criminally prosecuted.”

Trivette’s use of the Internet constituted an act affecting interstate commerce, making it a federal crime.

On Sept. 6, magistrate judge Carl Horn, III, ordered Trivette held without bond when federal prosecutors argued his two arrests for secret peeping and one for trying to induce a person he’d met in an Internet chat room to meet him for sex, made him a threat to children.

The chat room victim was actually an adult woman working for a group called US Cyberwatch, which engages in Internet stings designed to snare predators looking for underaged sex partners.

Horn wrote in the order that investigators found a “large number of images of child pornography” on Trivette’s computer after its seizure during execution of a search warrant in January.

“Defendant is a threat to children,” Horn continued. “Images on computer involved sexual acts with children as young as six years.”

Horn also noted Trivette’s offense carries a five-year minimum term of imprisonment.

Trivette’s attorney, Charlotte lawyer Scott Hadden Gsell, appealed the detention order with a Sept. 15 motion, but Trivette remains in custody. Gsell had not responded to a request for comment by press time.

Prosecutors won’t talk about plea negotiations, but court documents indicate they had evidence to slap Trivette with child pornography charges.

In the plea agreement, prosecutors have agreed not to bring charges based on the evidence seized from Trivette’s computer.

Trivette’s legal troubles began in Nov. 2003 when a neighbor told police she’d spotted him peeping through the bedroom window of another neighbor in a Boone apartment complex.

Local prosecutors had been unable to locate the witness and alleged victim in that case and the statute of limitations threatened to force the district attorney to drop the charge.

In Jan. 2005, Trivette was confronted with the allegations from US Cyberwatch that he’d arranged to meet a chat room acquaintance who portrayed herself as a 13-year-old girl who was new to Boone and looking for a friend.

Trivette reportedly placed photos of himself online and invited the girl to meet him in the early morning hours of Dec. 31, 2004.

Representatives of U.S. Cyberwatch also reported collecting digital recordings of phone calls Trivette made to a number provided by his presumably underaged chat mate.

The group also handed police investigators “screen shots,” of the dialogue between Trivette and the girl.

Trivette worked about 10 years as a part-time assistant coach for the Watauga High School cross country team. He was fired by school officials soon after police revealed the allegations. Then, in August, Trivette was arrested and charged again with secret peeping, this time at an apartment complex on Highland Hall Road.

All state charges were dropped in lieu of the federal charges.

• Jerry Sena may be contacted

at jtsena@wataugademocrat.com.