A Washington City man and former faith-based columnist charged with allegedly engaging with an underaged decoy that turned out to be a police detective made an initial appearance in court.
Joseph Brent Walker, 70, who has been charged with two third-degree felony counts of distributing materials harmful to a minor and one misdemeanor count of enticing a minor, appeared Wednesday in 2nd District Court in Farmington.
The charges were filed following an online sting operation by a Layton City Police detective who posed as a 14-year-old girl on an online dating platform, according to the affidavit filed in support of the arrest.
During the operation, the decoy was contacted by a man later identified by police as Walker, who reportedly engaged in sexually explicit conversations and sent inappropriate images online to the detective from a device in Washington County, the report alleges…