SPOKANE, Wash. – A man was arrested for the second time after police caught him in a child sex sting operation posing as a 13-year-old girl.
A Kittitas County Sheriff’s Deputy posed as 13-year-old ‘Alex’ who met John Cotton, 55, on the ‘MeetMe’ app.
Cotton was posing on the app as ‘Cody Smith’ who lived in Coeur D’Alene Idaho.
Cotton was immediately messaging Alex explicit messages while implying sexual acts knowing that she was 13.
KCSO posed as ‘Alex’ for nearly three months while messaging Cotton. In July they conducted a Net Nanny operation and arrested him in Wenatchee.
Cotton was previously arrested in 2018, after a successful sting operation where he was sentenced to three months in prison.
His previous charges in Oct. 2018, were on attempted rape of a child, sexual exploitation of a minor, and communication with a minor for immoral purposes.
All but one of those charges were dropped in a plea agreement.
Cotton was also found again on ‘Meet Me’ and was communicating with another agent from the Montana Bureau of Investigations who was posing as a 14-year-old girl.
This second profile stated his name was ‘Cody Smith’ and he was 35 and from Spokane with a matching phone number to his other accounts.
Data from AT&T was gathered from the law enforcement agencies that identified Cotton.
A cybertip from Facebook also aided police in their arrest after a user under the name of ‘Cody Smith’ uploaded child pornography material and sent it to another user.
Police estimate that material to be of a child between the ages of 6 and 11.
Cotten again initiated another conversation with a separate account with another agent posing as a minor.
On Aug. 23 at around 2:30 p.m., law enforcement authorized a search warrant for Cotton and his home. At around 3:30 p.m., Cotton was seen pulling up to a home in 1414 North Lidgerwood. A Washington State Patrol trooper was notified and conducted a traffic stop on Cotton and was placed in custody.
Police said they then searched Cotton’s home and found videos of minors. Cotton admitted to police that he had talked to minors and taken photos of children engaged in sexually explicit conduct. Admitted to being “Cody Smith” and searched for teen porn sites.
