Ex-Online Exec Pleads Not Guilty to Expanded Charges in Net Sex Case

Patrick J. Naughton, the former head of Walt Disney Co.’s online properties, pleaded not guilty Tuesday to an expanded list of federal charges that accuse him of using the Internet to solicit sex from a minor.

Naughton, 34, was arrested by FBI agents Sept. 16 after showing up at the Santa Monica Pier for what authorities said he expected to be a sexual encounter with a 13-year-old girl.

The arrest capped a six-month investigation in which, prosecutors say, FBI agents posed as teenage girls and corresponded with Naughton by e-mail and by trading messages with him in sex-themed chat rooms.

Prosecutors initially charged Naughton with one count of interstate travel with intent to have sex with a minor. But the U.S. attorney’s office broadened that allegation Tuesday to include two new charges.

The first accuses Naughton of using “a facility of interstate commerce,” namely the Internet, “to attempt to induce a minor to engage in criminal sexual activity.”

The second new charge accuses him of possession of child pornography, including pictures authorities say were found on Naughton’s laptop computer after his arrest. If convicted of all three counts, Naughton faces a maximum possible sentence of 35 years in federal prison.

Naughton was released after posting a $100,000 bond.

He declined to comment after his brief hearing in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles, except to say that he has been living “day by day” since his arrest and subsequent dismissal from his position as head of Disney’s Go Network of Web sites.

Naughton’s attorney, Donald Marks, said his client is “feeling upbeat and confident.”

“He believes he’s not guilty of these charges,” said Marks, a Los Angeles defense attorney whose former clients include convicted Hollywood madam Heidi Fleiss.

Marks’ work in the Fleiss case may provide a glimpse of his defense strategy for Naughton. In that case, Marks argued unsuccessfully that Fleiss was a victim of entrapment, that she had been induced to commit crimes by undercover agents.

Marks declined to say whether he would pursue a similar argument in the Naughton case, which is set for trial Nov. 30 in Los Angeles. Naughton has also hired a second attorney, Bruce Margolin, whose clients have included 1960s drug guru Timothy Leary.

Until last month, Naughton was best known for his rapid ascent through Silicon Valley’s ranks. At Sun Microsystems Inc. in the early 1990s, he was a member of the team that developed the Java programming language.

He went on to hold top executive positions at Starwave Corp., a Web design firm, and Infoseek Corp., an Internet search engine company. Both companies are now controlled, and in the process of being fully acquired, by Disney.

Since last January, Naughton had been executive vice president for the Go Network, Disney’s flagship brand in cyberspace. In fact, Naughton, who earned $180,000 a year and holds millions of dollars worth of stock options, is singled out for praise in Disney Chief Executive Michael Eisner’s 1998 autobiography.

But according to federal agents, Naughton was entering sex chat rooms even during the middle of the day while he was in his Seattle office. Using the name “hotseattle,” Naughton bragged that he “ran a company” and sent messages saying he wanted to come to L.A. to have sex with an online correspondent he believed was a 13-year-old girl, according to the FBI.

The arrest set off an ongoing wave of media coverage that has been an embarrassment to Disney, which has positioned itself as the leading purveyor of family-friendly content on the Internet.