Davenport
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WILKES-BARRE — A Hunlock Township man who challenged his arrest in an online child sting based on information supplied by a non-law enforcement figure pleaded guilty to a solicitation offense in Luzerne County Court on Tuesday.
John Daniel Davenport, 29, of Main Road, pleaded guilty to a felony charge of criminal solicitation to commit statutory sexual assault before President Judge Michael T. Vough.
The plea agreement negated a trial this week as a jury was selected Monday.
Prosecutors withdrew two counts of criminal attempt to commit unlawful contact with a minor and a single count of criminal use of communication facility against Davenport.
Earlier this year, Davenport’s attorneys, Joseph F. Sklarosky Sr. and Michael A. Sklarosky, of Sklarosky Law of Kingston, filed a King’s Bench petition with the Pennsylvania Supreme Court as there have been a difference of prosecutorial decisions and judicial opinions on non-law enforcement vigilante groups and private citizens who set up child predator stings.
The Supreme Court in July denied to hear Davenport’s case along with four other similar cases in Luzerne County.
The difference of prosecution and judicial opinions across Pennsylvania centers on the language of unlawful contact with a minor. The statute requires a law enforcement officer posing as a minor or an actual minor to support the offense in court.
Davenport was charged by Kingston police in October 2021, with information by a “cooperating witness” after a series of online conversations that were sexual in nature. The cooperation witness is not named in the criminal complaint filed against Davenport but has been identified as Musa Harris, the self-proclaimed Luzerne County Predator Catcher, during previous court proceedings.
Davenport is scheduled to be sentenced Feb. 27.