Sex-sting arrest for Pa. state employee

HARRISBURG - A security and training administrator for Pennsylvania's official criminal-justice computer network was suspended Friday after being charged with three felonies for allegedly trying to lure an officer posing as a teen girl to have sex with him.

The child-predator unit of the state Attorney General's Office filed charges of unlawful contact with a minor and criminal use of a computer against Kenneth M. Parvis, 47, of Hanover.

The state Office of Administration said Parvis was suspended Friday without pay or benefits from his $69,000-a-year job as an information technology specialist for the Pennsylvania Justice Network (JNET).

Police said Parvis approached an undercover officer on the Internet who was posing as a 14-year-old girl and sought to visit her home when her mother wasn't there.

According to the police complaint, after a graphic and suggestive exchange, the officer said she was 14, and Parvis replied: "Does that make me a perv to talk like that?"

State prosecutors said Parvis was jailed on $100,000 bail after his arrest Thursday at a place in the Philadelphia suburbs where he had made arrangements to meet the girl. A phone message left for an online listing linked to his Hanover address was not immediately returned.

JNET is a secure Web portal that links local, state, and federal law enforcement officials, giving them access to information used in investigations. It allows police to check criminal backgrounds and vehicle registrations, use facial recognition software, and gather other data.

Parvis has worked for the state government for six years. If convicted, he will be fired, an Office of Administration spokesman said.