Lakeville Man Charged with Soliciting a Minor for Sex

A Lakeville man has been charged with two felony counts of soliciting a minor after police set up an online sting to track him down after he contacted a Maple Grove teenager for sex.

Robert Gregg Trummer, 49, was charged with two felony counts of solicitation of a minor to engage in sexual conduct April 3 in Dakota County. Trummer remains in the Dakota County Jail on a $250,000 bond. An omnibus hearing in his case is scheduled April 24 in Dakota County District Court in Hastings. 

According to the criminal complaint filed, Maple Grove police were called to a home on Jan. 31 after a resident reported that a man had contacted his 13-year-old son online and asked him for sex. 

The Maple Grove resident told officers that he had come home to check on his son and saw an SUV driving very slowly past his house, with the male driver peering at the house, according to the complaint. The SUV passed the home and turned around, and the resident said he slowed down again and pulled to the side of the road so the driver could look more closely at the address.

Police learned that the 13-year-old had been chatting with a man online and had agreed to let the man come to his house for sex. The boy told the man that he was 13, and the man replied that his age was “cool,” according to the complaint.

Investigators tracked down a phone number and IP address through Craigslist posts, and learned that the IP address was registered to Trummer, the complaint charges.

An officer posing as a 14-year-old boy replied to Trummer’s ad, according to the complaint. A conversation between the two ensued and Trummer reportedly later sent a picture of himself to the officer who was posing as a 14-year-old boy.

Trummer asked the officer if he wanted to meet, drive around and talk, and invited him to “ask me anything,” the complaint says. 

The officer posing as a 14-year-old continued to ask questions, and Trummer became more graphic and explicit in his answers before asking for a photo of the boy in his underwear, the complaint charges. The two made arrangements to meet at a park in Lakeville, and Trummer provided his cell-phone number, which authorities say is the same number from which he called the 13-year-old in Maple Grove.

Trummer told the officer posing as a 14-year-old that he would be driving a blue SUV, and advised him to delete their messages “to be safe,” according to the complaint.

Police began surveillance of Trummer’s home and watched him leave and drive to the designated park in Lakeville. Trummer watched teenagers playing volleyball, then drove to a parking lot, where he was arrested.

Police say they found beer, lotion and Trummer’s cell phone in his SUV after his arrest, according to the complaint.