Man convicted of soliciting sex with 13-year-old

A Huntington Beach man was convicted this week in Los Angeles County of soliciting sex from what he thought was a 13-year-old girl.

Yani Leppanen, 35, faces a possible four years in prison after being convicted of arranging a meeting for sex in Redondo Beach with a police officer posing as an underage girl. He is scheduled to be sentenced Nov. 7.

According to authorities, Leppanen had several sexually explicit conversations with the officers in a chat room in spring of 2007 prior to the meeting.

According to media reports, Leppanen told a jury in Inglewood Superior Court that he was trying to look up child abuse. The jury, however, convicted him.

— Michael Alexander