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ST. CROIX, U.S. Virgin Islands (AP) - A retired New York radio personality accused of trying to set up a sexual encounter with a 7-year-old girl said he won't fight extradition to New Jersey during a court appearance Friday in the U.S. Virgin Islands.
David Herman did not enter a plea on a charge of attempting to transport a minor with intent to engage in sexual acts. He faces up to life in prison.
Herman's lawyer and two supporters declined comment after the hearing.
Magistrate Judge George Cannon ordered that Herman be returned to New Jersey, but it is unclear when he would be transferred. Assistant Federal Public Defender Gabriel Villegas said Herman had health and medical issues that should be treated in the U.S. mainland, but he did not elaborate.
Herman, a pioneering rock and roll disc jockey at former FM radio station WNEW, lives in Airmont, New York, and St. Croix.
Authorities say he exchanged online messages with an undercover agent posing as a 36-year-old woman with a young daughter. Prosecutors said Herman tried, in multiple phone and online conversations, to arrange illegal sexual encounters with the child in New York and Bergen County, until indicating he wanted to fly the pair to St. Croix so he could have sex with the girl there.
Herman bought airline tickets Sept. 30 for the woman and her child to fly from LaGuardia airport to St. Croix, according to prosecutors. He arrived at the airport Thursday to pick up the woman and child, according to the U.S. attorney's office, but was instead met by agents with U.S. Homeland Security and Immigration and Customs Enforcement, who arrested him.
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