Newswatch: Athlete Denies Guilt in E-Mail Tryst-Sting
November 4, 2000
A professional football player pleaded innocent Friday to charges that he sent sexually explicit e-mail to a Stanislaus County sheriff's detective posing as a 13-year-old girl.
John "J.D." Davidson, 31, was arrested Oct. 13 at a Modesto park where police say he had arranged to meet the fictitious teen -- the online creation of Detective Ken Hedrick.
Davidson, a member of the Indoor Football League's Bismarck (N.D.) Blaze and a Sacramento resident, faces felony charges of attempting to molest a child and distributing lewd material to a minor.
Superior Court Judge Wray Ladine set a Nov. 29 preliminary hearing.
Davidson remains in county jail. His attorney, Danny Brace of Sacramento, sought to reduce bail, and prosecutor Linda McFadden sought to increase it. Ladine left it at $200,000.
Investigators say Davidson visited an Internet chat room in September and then sent dozens of sexually explicit e-mails to Hedrick.