A man who drove to Wood County to meet a girl he thought was 12 years old has been sentenced.
Neil Diemer, 54, Ottawa, appeared Thursday in the courtroom of Wood County Common Pleas Judge Joel Kuhlman.
He pleaded guilty in June to importuning, a third-degree felony; disseminating matter harmful to juveniles and possessing criminal tools, both fifth-degree felonies.
Kuhlman said the maximum prison sentence, if served consecutively, was five years.
Defense attorney Scott Coon said the presumption of prison can be overcome as his client had no criminal record and showed no recidivism factors.
“He led a law-abiding life for a number of years,” Coon said.
His client has expressed remorse, he said, particularly over how it affected his family and community.
“He’s been ostracized by his neighbors and friends” and had to move and lost his job, Coon said.
“I take full responsibility for what I did,” Diemer said. “I’m embarrassed, I’m ashamed and it basically ruined my life.”
There are no victims, as a Perrysburg Township police detective started the communication, Coon said.
On Sept. 8, Diemer solicited the detective posing as a 12-year-old girl to engage in sex and provided images that were obscene.
Wood County Assistant Prosecuting Attorney Brian Boos said Diemer had numerous sexual conversations with someone he thought was a 12-year-old girl.
Diemer drove to Wood County to meet the girl, who fortunately was a police detective, in a grocery store parking lot, he said.
Kuhlman said the descriptions of what Diemer said he wanted to teach the girl were explicit.
The defendant sent obscene photos and asked for similar photos in return, he said.
“And you drove to Wood County to meet up with this person you thought existed,” he said.
Kuhlman imposed a sentence of 180 days in the Wood County Jail followed by five years of community control.
A charge of attempted rape was dismissed.
Diemer is to not use electronic devices with access to the internet and have no unsupervised contact with minors.
He will have to register as a Tier I sex offender, which will require annual verification for 15 years.
He also will be required to forfeit to the Perrysburg Township Police Department a 2023 Chevy Silverado 1500 pickup truck valued at $50,000-$60,000.
