Police Lured Men Into Hotel In What They Thought was 14 Y.O.Boy A Utica Rabbi Was Also Caught
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SYRACUSE, N.Y. (WSYR-TV) — A Utica rabbi was caught trying to meet up with someone he thought was a 14-year-old boy for sex but was instead caught by state police, troopers said in court papers.
Peter B. Schaktman, 66, was lured to a hotel on Electronics Parkway, according to state police in court papers. He was arrested as part of an eight-person sting.
Police said Schaktman messaged with an individual he thought was a 14-year-old boy to arrange the encounter at the hotel. In the court papers, troopers said Schaktman communicated the fact that he knew the age of the person he believed to be 14 years old while messaging them.
Temple Emanu-El in Utica, where Schaktman is a rabbi, has suspended him and is doing its own internal review. In court papers, police say 44-year-old Marvin Knapp and 65-year-old Kevin Lapoint were lured by police to the same hotel just hours apart. Both men were also under the impression they’d meet a 14-year-old boy for sex.
The other five men arrested were also under the impression they were meeting up with a 14-year-old for sex at hotels around Syracuse and Salina, court papers said. One of the men, 42-year-old Jarod Groah, agreed to pay $200.00 to meet up. Another, 53-year-old William Sheehan, actually paid an undercover officer $150.00 for that meet-up, not knowing it was police.
Xiaoqing Qi, 37, John Dejesus, 34, and William Whitfield, 41, were among the eight men arrested.
State troopers are asking anyone who knows anything about the men’s behavior or may have been a victim to call them.
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