The tale of the Barnetts, a young couple who spent this past spring robbing pedophiles in a scheme inspired by Dateline’s “To Catch a Predator” segment, finally came to a close last weekend.
On Saturday, Maria Barnett returned home to Rome. The Review, an East Liverpool paper, reported that she agreed to voluntary deportation. In exchange for her cooperation, a Carroll County judge dropped eight charges of extortion against Maria, who plead guilty to misdemeanor telecommunications harassment. She’d agreed to pose nude in photos that her husband, Mike, used to lure sexual predators to secluded places, where the couple would rip them off.
She’s been barred from returning to the States for the next three years. What happens to her marriage remains to be seen, since Mike is currently in prison. –Denise Grollmus
This article appears in Oct 11-17, 2006.