A 73-year-old Centralia man was ordered held without bond after being formally charged in Marion County Court on Monday with four felony charges related to an alleged effort to arrange a meeting with a juvenile for sex.
George Running was charged with traveling to meet a minor, grooming, indecent solicitation of a child over the internet and solicitation to meet a minor. He was arrested at the Centralia Wal-Mart store on Friday night where he had gone with the belief he was going to meet a juvenile he had communicated with on the internet. Instead, he was met by members of the Online Predator Intervention Group who had acted as the juvenile in online conversations.
A preliminary hearing in the case was set for June 10th and a jury trial for July 20th. Running had the public defender appointed to represent him.
