MONROE, Wash. — A high school psychologist in Monroe is among three males who were arrested for trying to have a sexual encounter with a minor as part of a sting operation by Redmond police.
Lance Egli, 49, was arrested Friday following a months-long investigation into child sexual exploitation and abuse in which detectives used decoy profiles on location-based social networking and dating apps to meet the suspects.
The Monroe School District sent the following to statement to KING 5 after learning of the allegations against their staff member: "It is our present understanding that the allegations do not involve students of the district in any fashion. The staff member has been placed on administrative leave pending law enforcement’s handling of this criminal matter. During this leave, the staff member is not permitted on district property, to participate in district events, or have contact with any students of the district. The district is cooperating with law enforcement and has started an internal investigation."
Egli was arrested along with 57-year-old Jeffrey Ralph Brown of Yakima, who was arrested in May, and 46-year-old Garrett Swanzy of Tacoma, who was arrested on Sept. 3. Brown and Swanzy were previously charged with immoral communications with a minor. Egli was formally charged Oct. 12.
These three were told several times throughout the operation that they were communicating with 14 or 15-year-old females, and all three continued to engage in sexually-motivated conversations.
According to the arrest documents, Egli was communicating with detectives since early June 2021.
Detectives said that through the messages, he clearly was interested in a romantic relationship with “Ellie,” the alias detectives were using on an app called Kik, and had multiple opportunities to cease communication.
In all, Egli had sent “Ellie” more than 380 messages, one of which was a photo of himself that detectives were able to use to positively identify him.
Egli was in court on Saturday for his first appearance, during which the judge ordered he be held on $100,000 bail.