Warrant: Molesting of boy admitted

By Neil Offen

DURHAM -- The Duke University official charged with soliciting adults over the Internet to have sex with a 5-year-old boy told an undercover police officer that he had sexually molested the child himself multiple times, according to an arrest warrant.

Frank M. Lombard, associate director of the Center for Health Policy at Duke, was charged Friday in federal court in Washington with attempting to induce someone to cross state lines to engage in sex with a child. He could face a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison if convicted.

Duke was informed by police officials Wednesday night that Lombard, who has worked at the university for the past 10 years, including his present post since 2007, had been arrested.

"But we didn't learn the details of the charges until [Friday] morning," said Michael Schoenfeld, vice president for public affairs at Duke. "At that point, we immediately put him on unpaid administrative leave.

The university is fully cooperating with the investigation, Schoenfeld said.

A Durham County Jail spokeswoman said Friday night that Lombard was being held there without bond.

Investigators -- who included the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the State Bureau of Investigation, a Northern Virginia Internet crime task force, and the Washington, D.C., and Durham police -- said they learned of Lombard's alleged activities through an unnamed informant who is also facing child sex charges.

According to the affidavit sworn by D.C. police Det. Timothy Palchak, the informant -- whom he identified as a "confidential source" -- said he had been in contact via an Internet-based video chat program with an individual who had been sexually molesting a child and broadcasting that molestation using a Webcam.

Police obtained a subpoena requesting the name of the account holder for the chat program. The account belonged to a Frank M. Lombard, who fit a physical description given by the confidential source.

On Tuesday, as part of an online undercover operation, Palchak made contact with an individual whose chat name was "FL." That individual, the officer said, stated he had molested a child.

According to the affidavit, the individual described as FL said the abuse "was easier when the child was too young to talk or know what was happening, but that he had drugged the child with Benadryl during the molestation."

The warrant said that FL invited the undercover officer to fly to Durham this week to have sexual contact with the child and that "there would be no limits on the sexual activity he could engage in."

The warrant said that FL was fully visible over the Webcam and was identical to the North Carolina driver's license photograph of Frank Lombard.