Man charged in Internet sting faces hearing

NEW WATERFORD -- Preliminary hearings for a 54-year-old Kentucky man caught in an Internet sting will be at 1:30 p.m. Feb. 17 in the Columbiana County Municipal Court in East Palestine.
Michael Black of Taylorsville, Ky., is in the Columbiana County jail on $1 million bond. He appeared Monday in Columbiana County Muncipal Court in Lisbon.
Judge Mark A. Frost continued a $500,000 bond for a charge of attempting to have unlawful contact with a minor, a fifth-degree felony. Judge Frost set a bond of $500,000 for an additional charge of importuning, a fourth-degree felony, and appointed Atty. Eric Kibler as defense counsel.
New Waterford Police Chief Dan Haueter and officers of the Columbiana County Sheriff's Department and the Columbiana County Drug Task Force arrested Black on Jan. 30 when he arrived at a fictitious New Waterford address Haueter gave him.
Haueter said he posed as a 15-year-old girl and conversed several times with Black in an Internet chat room. Haueter said Black agreed to drive to New Waterford for sex and arranged the meeting, nearly 400 miles from Black's home.