A 15-year-old girl was picked up at a Rex baseball park
by a 46-year-old California man she met on the Internet, who then took her to Los Angeles
and spent a week with her at a motel.
Michael Glover of Long Beach, Calif., is scheduled to
make a court appearance today to determine whether he should be held in custody or freed
on bail until a Sept. 11 preliminary hearing. He is charged with two counts of
transporting a minor across state lines with the intent to engaged in criminal sexual
activity.
The FBI told the Los Angeles Times that Michael Glover
was arrested Thursday after he was found with the girl in a Motel 6 in Los Angeles.
According to the Times, FBI Special Agent Timothy
Stanislawski described Glover's alleged relationship with the girl in an affidavit that
stated Glover met the girl in April in an America Online chat room. On Aug. 17 or 18,
Glover flew to Birmingham, rented a car and drove to a ballpark near Rex. There, he met
the girl, her sister and an unidentified male, the affidavit said.
Glover allegedly told the girl's sister ''that he was
not taking the victim away, but the victim was going of her own free will.''
The victim told FBI agents that she knew Glover was
coming to meet her with a one-way ticket to California. She said Glover seemed surprised
at how young she was.
''The victim told Glover that she was 15 years old when
they met,'' the affidavit states. ''Glover's response was, 'Oh God.' ''
The girl told FBI agents Glover then drove ''rapidly''
from Atlanta to Birmingham, avoiding Hartsfield International Airport ''because Glover was
concerned that the police would be looking for the victim at the Atlanta airport,'' the
affidavit said.
Meanwhile, the girl's sister told her parents what had
happened, and they called the local police. The case is one of several sex crimes recently
involving the Internet.
In May, a Marietta man was arrested and charged with
false imprisonment, child molestation and statutory rape after he brought a girl, 13, to
his home. On the Internet, she had told the man she was 16, police said.
Cherokee County recorded two rapes resulting from cyber
encounters in 1998. In February, a Buford man pleaded guilty to statutory rape with a
13-year-old Cherokee County girl whom he met over the Internet, and a 24-year-old man was
charged in August with raping a woman, 18, whom he met in a chat room.
"Just make sure you know what your kids are doing
on the computer," GBI spokesman John Bankhead said.
Staff writer Kirsten Searer contributed to this
article.