P. v. Bodnar
Defendant Thomas John Bodnar appeals from his conviction and sentence on one count of attempting to commit a lewd and lascivious act on a child under age 14. Bodnar was caught in a sting operation that was arranged by a volunteer organization called Perverted Justice, in conjunction with the producers of the Dateline television show. Bodnar was led to believe that he was going to meet a 13-year-old boy, after chatting online and on the telephone with Perverted Justice volunteers who posed as the boy.
Bodnar challenges his conviction on the grounds that there is insufficient evidence to support a finding that he believed he was going to meet a child who was under 14 years of age, that the trial court erred in refusing his request for a jury instruction on the defense of entrapment, and that the court abused its discretion in admitting certain evidence related to sexual activity that Bodnar engaged in with a young boy more than 20 years prior to the current offense. Bodnar also challenges his sentence to the extent that the court ordered that he serve a five-year period of parole, rather a three-year period. Specifically, Bodnar contends that his conviction for an attempted enumerated offense does not constitute a violation of that particular enumerated offense, so that the five-year period that applies to commission of the offense should not apply to him.
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