Man sentenced for soliciting Rocklin teen

Steven Lawrence Elliott, 40-of Grass Valley man was placed on five years of probation, given a three-year suspended prison sentence and ordered to register as a sex offender in a Placer County case in which he solicited teenage girls to send photos of the girls in their underwear.

Steven Lawrence Elliott was given the sentence today by Superior Court Judge Robert P. McElhany, who also credited Elliott for serving 495 days of incarceration in the Placer County Jail. But he may not be released immediately because there is a custody hold on him from Nevada County, according to prosecutor Todd Kuhnen of the Placer County District Attorney”s Office.

In his Placer County case, if Elliott should violate probation, he is subject to being ordered to fulfill the remainder of his three-year suspended sentence in a state prison.

Elliott was arrested in July 2009 following an investigation by the Rocklin Police Department into allegations by the mother of a 15-year-old girl that her daughter had received inappropriate text messages.

Police determined that Elliott had posed as a 16-year-old boy and text-messaged or made Internet contact with a number of teenage girls, asking for photos of their underwear or of the girls wearing underwear.

Elliott originally pleaded not guilty to multiple charges, some of which included stalking, contacting minors with the intent to commit a sexual offense, annoying children and one count of the unauthorized use of another person’s identity.

On May 5, Elliott agreed to plead no contest to the felony charge of the unauthorized use of another’s identity and to one misdemeanor count of annoying a child under the age of 18.

Kuhnen, the prosecutor, said the probation conditions imposed on Elliott will be stringent. Some include restrictions on the use of the Internet and of cell phones.

‘Given the very short leash on which the defendant finds himself, there is very little margin for error when it comes to possible future violations of probation,’ Kuhnen said.