Diers to be arraigned today
By Tom Blakey
Transcript Staff Writer
A man employed the past four years as a graphic artist at Norman Public Library and charged one week ago with the rape of a 13-year-old Norman girl, had additional charges filed against him Monday in connection with his alleged pursuit of minor girls in Internet chat rooms.
Ganelon Grant Diers, 42, was charged in Cleveland County District Court with unlawful seclusion of a minor for immoral purposes; attempted abduction of a person under age 15; use of a computer to violate Oklahoma law; and engaging in a pattern of criminal offenses.
"These new charges are based on information provided by Nikki Delaney," said District Attorney Tim Kuykendall.
Delaney is the owner/operator of U.S. Cyberwatch, an Internet-based organization that tracks would-be child predators (uscyberwatch.com). Posing as a young girl in local chat rooms, Delaney waits to be contacted by men wanting to arrange real-life meetings for sexual purposes. She works with local police and law enforcement officials to prosecute numerous cases in Cleveland County.
Delaney, a potential witness at Monday's preliminary hearing for accused child predator Brian Keith Fletcher, traveled to Norman last week from her home in Colorado and brought with her chat room logs and other information compiled against Diers for prosecutors to review.
According to court documents, Diers, using his home computer and a library computer under the screen name "Soonermax37," attempted to initiate several meetings with "Amy," whom he believed to be a 13-year-old girl.
"He tried to get her to walk out of her house and to the street so he could drive by and make sure she was a real child," Delaney said. "He called it a 'meet and greet in the street.'"
Prosecutors allege Diers maintained sub-accounts and used the screen names "CreamandCoffey" and "porndirector101" to make contact with "Carrie," another decoy profile used by U.S. Cyberwatch. Prosecutors say Diers posted a photo of a younger man in his porndirector101 profile, to attract younger women more easily.
"As a result of the chat sessions and the phone calls, it is apparent that Diers uses multiple profiles by computer Internet services, with which to entice or lure juveniles into a relationship that eventually develops into a face-to-face meeting between Diers and the juvenile for illegal intentions, and that based on these chats, Diers has committed several criminal acts," states the court affidavit filed Monday.
Prosecutors say additional charges may yet be filed against Diers, as other victims have come forward since the first-degree rape charges were filed last week.
In that case, a 13-year-old girl told police she'd met Diers on the Internet, that they'd been involved in a dating relationship since March, and had been sexually involved on one occasion. Police reportedly responded to the report of a disturbance at the home of the victim, to find her parents arguing with Diers.
According to court documents, Diers admitted picking up the girl at 2:30 a.m. and taking her home at 5 a.m.
Seeking computer evidence, police July 10 executed search warrants at the Norman Public Library, 225 N. Webster Ave., and Diers' home on Villa Drive.
Diers is free on $50,000 bond on the rape charge. His attorney, Doug Smith, arranged for Diers to surrender on the new charges today, prosecutors said.
Tom Blakey 366-3540 tblakey@normantranscript.com
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