Former Principal Sentenced For Soliciting Minor On Internet

School Official Pleads No Contest To Child Solicitation

CBS Newswatch 3/February 10, 2005

A former assistant principal at Bishop Hendricken High School in Warwick pleaded no contest on Thursday to one count of indecently soliciting a child.

The attorney general's office said Timothy Sheldon, 39, was sentenced to five years probation.

Sheldon also had to surrender his state teaching certificate, and he was ordered to complete sex offender counseling, not to be employed in any job in which he has contact with children, and not to use the Internet.

Sheldon was arrested Dec. 17 following a police probe into an explicit discussion Sheldon allegedly had in an online chat room with someone he believed to be a 14-year-old boy.

The investigation was prompted by a transcript of the discussion posted on a Web site called "Perverted Justice," which is run by people who pose as children in chat rooms in an effort to catch would-be pedophiles.

Sheldon was suspended from his job at the Catholic school after police began investigating the online conversation.