An Olympia truck driver has been sentenced following his arrest during the 2023 Net Nanny sting operation, which resulted in the arrest of 15 suspects from across the state attempting to meet teenage girls in Longview.
Justin Michael Gardner, 39, of Olympia, was sentenced to two years for each count of third-degree rape, as well as a concurrent sentence of two years and 10 months of community custody, after he traveled to Longview to meet who he thought was a parent offering her children for sexual purposes, not knowing she was an undercover police officer from the Spokane Police Department.
An undercover Tacoma police officer served as one of the fake victims.
Gardner, who owns a trucking company, responded to a post on the social media site Fling.com, believing he was communicating with Becky, a fictitious single 48-year-old mother of 9 and 12-year-old daughters, police records report.
On Oct. 28 he drove from Tumwater to Longview, were Gardner met the undercover officer at Longview’s Ashtown Brewery, at 1145 11th Ave., where he talked about his sexual interest with the fake minors and agreed to purchase condoms and other items. He bought those at a nearby Rite Aid and was arrested at a different location, according to court records.
After he was arrested authorities found condoms, lube and Sour Patch Kids candy in his bag.
He later told a corrections officer during an interview at the Cowlitz County Jail that his reaction to the offer from the fictitious mother was a “what-the-hell,” moment and believed he was getting into some type of role-playing scenario with adults.
“(I) should have called the cops,” Gardner said to the interviewers when he met the decoy at the Longview bar, according to court records.
