Collins mayor/pastor caught in Diamond internet sex sting

The Neosho Daily News reports that Collins Mayor Allen D. Kauffman was arrested after attempting to meet someone he thought was a teenaged girl for sex. The girl turned out to be a Diamond police officer. It is the latest in a long series of Internet sex stings by the department:

“Kauffman told the decoy that he did not show a photograph of himself on his Yahoo profile ‘so no one can trace me down,’ ” Brumfield said in an e-mail received Friday evening by the Neosho Daily News. “However, he later turned on his webcam and numerous screen shots were taken of his face and other body parts.”

Brumfield said the man expressed concern that the decoy “could be a cop luring me into a trap,” but sent instant messages to her, discussing meeting her for the purpose of taking nude photographs and having sex.

Kauffman is married and serves as a pastor of the Temple Lot Church in Collins, the Diamond police chief said.

Kauffman was arrested by the St. Clair County Sheriff’s Department on a Newton County warrant. On Thursday, he was charged with four counts of enticement of a child, an unclassified felony. Bond has been set at $50,000.