WINONA, Minn. — Acting on an FBI tip, Winona County deputies arrested a Goodview man on a warrant asserting that he solicited sex online with a minor. Arrested was Louis Joel Lentner, 44, of Winona. The criminal complaint says Letner believed he was chatting with a minor — and exchanging explicit selfies. But on the other end, in actuality, was a far-away FBI informant posing as a teen-ager and leading Lentner on in a classic sting. Lentner was arrested at his factory job on Bundy Boulevard about 12:50 p.m. Under questioning at the police station, according to the criminal complaint, Lentner admitted to the chatting. Pre-armed with a search warrant, investigators confiscated Lentner’s cellphone. Two St. Paul-based agents from state Bureau of Criminal Apprehension used the agency’s new mobile electronic detection lab to extract data on-the-spot from Letner’s phone. The arrest was a multi-agency project involving the national Internet Crime Against Children Task Force, the FBI, the state BCA, and the Southeast Minnesota Violent Crimes Task Force, the County sheriff’s office, and Winona police.
Lentner. Charged with soliciting a child for sex, a felony.