Agents pick up paroled sex offender

GLENDALE — A former Glendale police officer and attorney convicted of seducing young girls online was arrested Tuesday on suspicion of violating the terms of his parole, including possessing computers, officials said.

Parole agents took convicted sex offender Arthur Crabtree, 49, into custody during a routine parole compliance search after they found two laptop computers and other suspicious material in his east Glendale home, said James Symington III, the Los Angeles area parole administrator for the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.

Agents also found video or audio tapes that may be intended for children and a photograph with a young woman or child, he said.

Investigators are looking into the materials to determine whether an offense occurred, Symington said.

Glendale police forensic investigators will assist in examining one of Crabtree’s computers, he added.

Glendale Police Chief Ron De Pompa, who has rallied against the early release of parolees in the community, commended the “due diligence in the removal of those from our community who pose a threat.”

“We are concerned about the number of parolees being released into our community and any effort to monitor and eliminate them is welcomed by the Glendale Police Department, but more importantly I am sure, the community,” he said in a statement.

Crabtree left the Glendale Police Department in February 2000 after more than 15 years, officials said.

He was convicted in July 2006 of one felony count of attempted lewd acts on a child, three felony counts of attempting to send harmful material over the Internet, four misdemeanor counts of attempted child molestation and one misdemeanor count of child molestation.

He was sentenced to five years and eight months in prison, according to the department of corrections. Crabtree was released on probation in August 2009 as a registered sex offender.

Crabtree, who was also a family law attorney, was arrested in January 2005 after he arranged a meeting with an undercover agent posing as a 13-year-old girl at the Greyhound bus station in downtown Los Angeles.

Testimony and evidence presented during the trial showed that Crabtree had solicited an underage Santa Clarita girl and several undercover agents who posed as five different teenage girls.

Crabtree has never violated his parole conditions, Symington said.

Crabtree is being held without bail at a Los Angeles County jail.