Risky business: Porn-loving merchant does his time

While some men have a knack for running from the law, others have actually stumbled into it. Take the case of Robert Lightburn, a local entrepreneur who engaged in a risqué online relationship with what he thought was an underage girl but who turned out to be an undercover cop.

Lieutenant Anthony Depippo of the Carpentersville, Illinois, police department explains he set up the sting in which an officer, posing as a 14-year-old girl went online and waited for adults to initiate chat. "If things turn sexual, we pursue them," says Depippo.

"Mr. Lightburn sent many pictures depicting children involved in sex acts and made it clear that he wanted sex with [the fictitious girl]."

According to police records, Lightburn found nothing too young about the nymphet from Carpentersville.

Lightburn was in the Chicago area "on business," according to the Madison Eagle, and made a detour to meet her where he discovered that she was an adult male– with a badge.

When it comes to meeting 14-year-old girls in chat rooms, "any adult male should think twice," says Depippo, "maybe three times."

Couldn't this type of sting be considered entrapment? "Obviously, I don't initiate anything sexual," says Depippo.

In fact, for each felon-to-be whom Depippo meets (there have been around 10 in the last three years), there are hundreds of people who take him for an average adolescent girl– and look out for "her" welfare.

"People write and say 'You're too young' and 'You shouldn't be here,'" he says. "I've been banned from chat rooms for being too young."

Lightburn, a Madison County resident, owns a large farm where in the past he hosted field days for school children. More locally, he owns the Comic Game Hobby Place, a popular Charlottesville boutique whose chipper flag is well-known to those who frequent the west end of the Downtown Mall. (Lightburn has enjoyed an illustrious gaming career, including taking first place in "Risk" at the World Board gaming Championships in 1999.)

"He managed the store from afar, basically, and I was managing the store locally," says Justin Thompson, a former employee of Lightburn's. "He wasn't there everyday. He'd just come down to make sure the store was running smoothly."

And things were indeed running smoothly until the bombshell came.

"It was a shock no one knew in advance," says Thompson. "He came down and gave us a talking to before the news hit the press."

Lightburn, 45, was sentenced to three years in prison but was paroled January 4, 2002, from the Shawnee Correctional Center in Illinois after serving only one year, according to the Illinois Department of Corrections.

So back in the area, is he minding the shop– a place where kids are invited to play games on-site?

When The Hook contacted him in Madison shortly after his release, Lightburn refused to comment on the grounds that he'd rather not be in the media spotlight, preferring to focus on getting his life back to normal.

The store manager also declined to comment earlier this week.

Felon or not, family and buddies are standing behind Lightburn.

"He's a friend," says Thompson. "He made a mistake, he knows he made it, and he's trying to move on."