Former Exec Pleads Guilty to Seeking Sex With Minor on Internet

Former Internet executive Patrick J. Naughton pleaded guilty Friday to crossing state lines with the intent to have sex with a minor, admitting to a crime that he had insisted he didn’t commit since his arrest last September after an online sting by FBI agents.

The plea agreement, approved by Judge Edward Rafeedie in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles, brought an unexpected conclusion to the high-profile case just days before the start of a second trial.

Naughton, 34, formerly executive vice president of Walt Disney Co.’s Go.com Internet site, faces 12 to 18 months in prison under federal sentencing guidelines. Under the agreement, the government also dropped two other charges accusing Naughton of possession of child pornography, and of using the Internet to seduce a minor.

Neither Naughton nor his attorney, Donald Marks, would comment on the plea agreement. But Naughton’s older brother James insisted in a telephone interview that his sibling is not guilty, and indicated that the plea reflects an attempt to secure a far more favorable sentence than he might have faced at the end of a second trial. “Anyone who knows Patrick knows that he is an innocent man,” James Naughton said. “Whatever happened in court today doesn’t change that.”

Prosecutors, however, said the outcome proves their contention that Naughton was out to seduce a minor when he propositioned an undercover agent posing as a girl in an online chat room, despite his defense that he was merely engaging in an online role-playing fantasy.

“We’re very pleased to have him stand up and admit that the fantasy defense was a lie,” said Asst. U.S. Atty. Patricia Donahue.

Naughton was arrested on Santa Monica Pier last September after showing up for what authorities say he expected to be a sexual rendezvous with a teenage girl. The arrest was the culmination of a six-month investigation in which a male FBI agent posed online as a 13-year-old girl and corresponded with Naughton in a chat room called “Dad&daughtersex.;”

Naughton repeatedly insisted that he never intended to have sex with a minor, and believed he was corresponding with an adult pretending to be a teenage girl. But in court on Friday, Naughton admitted that he did believe he was chatting with a minor, and that the “dominant purpose” of his trip in September was to lure his correspondent into having sex with him.

The case became a source of embarrassment for Infoseek Corp., Naughton’s employer at the time, but also for Disney, which was in the process of acquiring Infoseek.

Naughton pleaded guilty Friday to a count on which jurors were deadlocked at the end of the first trial in December. Meanwhile, prosecutors dropped the one charge--possession of child pornography--that had ended in conviction in Naughton’s first trial. That conviction was later overturned.

If Naughton had been convicted on all counts, he would have faced a maximum of 35 years in prison. He now receives favorable consideration for “accepting responsibility” by pleading guilty. Further, he avoids the possibility of being convicted of possession of child porn, which is treated more harshly under federal law than the interstate travel charge.

Naughton remains free on $100,000 bond pending his sentencing, scheduled for June 5.