KTKA

Judge Jan Leunenberger gave a man three years of probation for a conviction that would legally warrant almost five years in prison, according to state guidelines. A new state law was supposed to keep that from happening.

"It's another example of judges not following guidelines and it's something we have to look into," said Representative Joe Patton, who fought for tougher sentencing guidelines.

Patton helped pass a bill in the legislative session about judges giving probation to sexual violence cases.

We asked him about Brandon Mason, who received three years of probation for trying to solicit a child online.

"The judge was used as an excuse for probation that the investigators were very aggressive. I don't think that should be a defense. I think we should be in fact very aggressive in pursuing these investigations," said Patton.

This is a picture of Brandon Mason from www.uscyberwatch.com. The group joined up with local law enforcement agents in a sting operation in 2006.

The Web site claims Mason had multiple chats with their decoy Nikki, which were very graphic.

Brad Peterson, a Special Agent with the FBI, says law enforcement has to be careful during stings.

"We're taught various techniques on how to conduct ourselves properly so we can make sure that the person we're talking to has a genuine predisposition, to actually engage in this type of behavior, and that doesn't come from us. We're basically making sure that it comes from them," Peterson said. "They said the victim was not a victim. The reason why, of course, we put agents or detectives online is because we are not going to subject a child to basically going through what we're trying to protect them from in the first place."