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Duke staffer held in child sex case
Officials say boy, 5, offered online
BY ERIC FERRERI, Staff Writer
DURHAM - A Duke University researcher is charged with offering up his adopted 5-year-old son for sex with a stranger he met over the Internet.
Frank Lombard, 42, associate director of Duke's Center for Health Policy, was arrested Wednesday evening at his Durham home as the result of a sting operation conducted by the FBI and Washington, D.C., police.
Lombard waived an extradition hearing Friday morning in Raleigh and will be taken to Washington next week to face charges, according to a spokesman for the U.S. Department of Justice.
He could face as much as 20 years in prison.
An unidentified informant facing his own child sex charges led authorities to Lombard, according to an affidavit by Washington Police Detective Timothy Palchak.
The source told police that on three or four occasions he saw Lombard perform oral sex and other sex acts on the child, according to a press release from the Justice Department. Lombard invited an investigator posing on the Internet as a sexual predator to perform multiple sex acts on the child if he flew to North Carolina, according to the release. He even suggested which hotel the investigator should use.
Investigators got a search warrant and arrested Lombard in Durham. When they searched Lombard's home, investigators seized two webcams, five computers and a sex toy, among other items.
The state Department of Social Services placed two children at the home, including the 5-year-old, in protective custody.
The detective's affidavit charges that Lombard identified himself online as "perv dad for fun," and says that in an online chat with the detective, Lombard said he had sexually molested his son, whom he adopted as an infant. The details of the adoption have not been made public.
Calls to Lombard's home went unanswered Friday.
Duke spokesman Michael Schoenfeld said Lombard has worked at Duke since 1999. Durham city officials told the university of the arrest late Wednesday; Lombard was placed on unpaid administrative leave Thursday.
"Duke is cooperating with the investigation," Schoenfeld said.
Lombard was a health disparities researcher who has obtained millions of dollars in federal grants to study HIV/AIDS in the rural south, according to a Duke Web site.
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eric.ferreri@newsobserver .com
Officials say boy, 5, offered online
BY ERIC FERRERI, Staff Writer
DURHAM - A Duke University researcher is charged with offering up his adopted 5-year-old son for sex with a stranger he met over the Internet.
Frank Lombard, 42, associate director of Duke's Center for Health Policy, was arrested Wednesday evening at his Durham home as the result of a sting operation conducted by the FBI and Washington, D.C., police.
Lombard waived an extradition hearing Friday morning in Raleigh and will be taken to Washington next week to face charges, according to a spokesman for the U.S. Department of Justice.
He could face as much as 20 years in prison.
An unidentified informant facing his own child sex charges led authorities to Lombard, according to an affidavit by Washington Police Detective Timothy Palchak.
The source told police that on three or four occasions he saw Lombard perform oral sex and other sex acts on the child, according to a press release from the Justice Department. Lombard invited an investigator posing on the Internet as a sexual predator to perform multiple sex acts on the child if he flew to North Carolina, according to the release. He even suggested which hotel the investigator should use.
Investigators got a search warrant and arrested Lombard in Durham. When they searched Lombard's home, investigators seized two webcams, five computers and a sex toy, among other items.
The state Department of Social Services placed two children at the home, including the 5-year-old, in protective custody.
The detective's affidavit charges that Lombard identified himself online as "perv dad for fun," and says that in an online chat with the detective, Lombard said he had sexually molested his son, whom he adopted as an infant. The details of the adoption have not been made public.
Calls to Lombard's home went unanswered Friday.
Duke spokesman Michael Schoenfeld said Lombard has worked at Duke since 1999. Durham city officials told the university of the arrest late Wednesday; Lombard was placed on unpaid administrative leave Thursday.
"Duke is cooperating with the investigation," Schoenfeld said.
Lombard was a health disparities researcher who has obtained millions of dollars in federal grants to study HIV/AIDS in the rural south, according to a Duke Web site.
.
eric.ferreri@newsobserver .com
Prisoners know how to handle people like that 
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