Ohio man accused of enticing a minor in Cedar Rapids

CEDAR RAPIDS — An Ohio man was arrested in Cedar Rapids on Wednesday after a nonprofit biker group based in Indiana reported that he tried to meet up with a 13-year-old girl for sex.

Walter Leon Conkright, 27, of Cincinnati, is charged with enticing a minor under 16.

According to a news release from the Cedar Rapids Police Department, the police department was contacted at 6:48 p.m. Wednesday by Bikers Against Predators, a nonprofit that aims to combat online child predators.

The group told police that a man staying at Residence Inn, at 730 33rd Ave. SW, had invited one of the Bikers Against Predators members — who was posing as a 13-year-old girl on a messaging app — to meet with him in his hotel room to have sex.

The person running the fake profile told the man she was only 13, and he still asked her to come to his hotel room for sex, according to a criminal complaint.

A female member of the bikers group made initial contact with the man at the hotel, and then two male group members confronted him. Cedar Rapids police arrived and spoke with the man, identified as Conkright, and the group members, according to the complaint.

Police investigated and arrested Conkright.

Conkright had his first appearance in Linn County District Court on Tuesday and is being held in the Linn County Jail on a cash-only $5,000 bond.

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