Taney County Prosecuting Attorney, Jeffrey M. Merrell announced today that MICHAEL S. PRUIETT, dob: 01-30-1972 of Ava, Missouri entered a plea of guilty yesterday in front of Taney County Circuit Judge Mark Orr to the class D felony of attempted sexual misconduct involving a child by indecent exposure. Formal sentencing is set for March 18, 2010.

On August 3, 2009, an investigator with the Tri-Lakes Regional Internet Crimes Task Force was posing as a female under the age of fourteen (14) in a Missouri yahoo.com chat room. Contact was made with an individual under the screen name Cardsfan1029. During the chat session the individual using the screen name Cardsfan1029 began to engage in sexually explicit chatting with the undercover investigator posing as a minor. During the chat Cardsfan1029 started a webcam session where live video was shared with the undercover investigator. On the video webcam session, Cardsfan1029 exposed himself to the undercover investigator and engaged in sexual contact with himself. Through follow-up investigation, Cardsfan1029 was identified as the defendant, MICHAEL S. PRUIETT.

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