Burnsville Man Accused of Sending Sexually Explicit Messages to an Underage Girl

(KNSI) — A 38-year-old Burnsville man was arrested and charged after allegedly engaging in sexually explicit conversations with someone he believed was a 15-year-old girl.

According to the criminal complaint, starting in July, an investigator with the Central Minnesota Human Trafficking Task Force was in their office in St. Cloud when they received a message on a chat site popular with teens. The investigator was on the site posing as a 15-year-old girl, and the messages came from a man identified in court papers as Lucas Rollings. The message asked what her body looked like. When the undercover officer replied, they say the conversation turned sexual, describing in detail what he wanted to do to her, including sexual photos of himself and suggested they meet in person for sex. The messages continued for roughly a month.

On October 18th, investigators with the CMHTTF and Burnsville Police Department executed a search warrant at Rollings’s apartment and seized several items, including electronic devices. In a sworn statement, Rollings admitted to having an account on the messaging app but said he didn’t remember his user name or the last time he logged on. He also admitted that he uses the app to talk with people and sends pictures; sometimes, those pictures are sexual. Rollings said he doesn’t remember having conversations with or sending pictures to underage girls. The investigator told Rollings he talked with them about sexual topics and knew he was speaking with a 15-year-old girl. He claimed he didn’t remember that.

Rollings has been charged with one count of soliciting a minor through electronic communication to engage in sexual conduct, one count of engaging in electronic communication relating to or describing sexual conduct with a child, and one count of distributing via electronic communication material that relates to or describes sexual conduct to a child.

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