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Former Utah state employee charged with sex solicitation after reporting alleged Craigslist scam to FBI is sentenced to probation

A former state worker who called the FBI to report a scam on Craigslist and ended up in jail for soliciting sex from a purported teen has been sentenced to time-served and probation.

Nicholas Deelstra, 55, called the FBI in late August to tell them he had solicited sex with a 16-year-old boy on Craigslist and agreed to have the teen come to his house in North Logan, according to court documents. But the boy never showed up.

Deelstra — then an employee with the Office of Rehabilitation in the state Department of Workforce Services — told the FBI that the next day a person claiming to be the teen’s father began messaging him, “demanding he send money to cover car repairs because” the boy damaged the family‘s vehicle while trying to go meet up with the man, court records state.