A St. Paul man had cyber-sex with a 15-year-old boy he met at a school in Missouri in 2007, according to a charge filed Thursday in Ramsey County District Court.
Thomas F. LaBlanc, 64, faces one felony count of soliciting a child for sex online.
According to the charges, St. Paul police were contacted in 2009 by police in Independence, Mo., who were investigating a case involving a 14-year-old boy who had an online relationship with a Minnesota man identified as "Tatonka."
The boy told Missouri investigators that Tatonka came to his middle school in 2007 to perform an Indian dance. The boy sent a friend-request to Tatonka via MySpace and the two communicated online for about a year before Tatonka allegedly asked the boy to send nude photos of himself, the complaint said. Investigators said they discovered sexually explicit online messages that the two sent each other in 2009.
Police used MySpace records to trace the account for "Tatonka Ohitika" to LaBlanc. LaBlanc told police in 2010 that he didn't travel to, or perform at, a school in Missouri. He said he has a foundation in Norway involving music and communicates with people via MySpace.
"I internet with everybody in the world," the complaint quoted LaBlanc. "I got 15,000 people on MySpace, 8,000 on Facebook."
LaBlanc could not be reached for comment.
LORA PABST
