Former Baptist camp director pleads guilty to sex crime

LOUISIANA
Associated Baptist Press

By Bob Allen

Tuesday, April 10, 2012

SHREVEPORT, La. (ABP) – A former Louisiana Baptist camp director has pleaded guilty to sending pornographic photos of himself over the Internet to an undercover police officer posing as a 14-year-old girl, according to media reports.

Michael P. Latham, 45, faces sentencing Aug. 8 in U.S. District Court for attempting to transport obscene material to a minor, a federal law that carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison and/or a $250,000 fine.

Latham was arrested last October in a joint investigation by the Louisiana State Police and Claiborne Parish Sheriff’s Office targeting online sexual predators. At the time he was director of Harris Baptist Conference and Retreat Center, a Southern Baptist campground owned by the Bienville, Concord Union and Webster Claiborne Baptist associations in northwest Louisiana.

Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.