Pennsylvania- Veteran sports writer Steve Sembrat [picture] was busted Sunday by police in Delaware County.

The longtime former high school sports writer and president of a girls field hockey club is accused of seeking bondage sex over the Internet from an undercover officer posing as a 13-year-old girl.

Sembrat, a Times Leader employee, was arrested Sunday afternoon in Springfield Township, Delaware County, after he allegedly arrived at a store to meet the “girl” – actually Lisa M. Carroll, a detective with the county’s child Internet crime unit.

Acting under the pseudonym “Doom5888,” Sembrat, 48, corresponded with the “girl” in an Internet chat room on several occasions since March in an attempt to tie her up and have her perform oral sex on him, according to an arrest affidavit.

In one chat, Sembrat allegedly said he tied up a 12-year-old girl at the “shore” four years ago and masturbated in her presence. Police don’t know if the statement is true, but are investigating, said Lt. Dave Peifer of the Delaware County Internet CrimesAgainst Children task force.

State police in Wyoming seized Sembrat’s computer from his home with his consent on Sunday and are examining it to determine if there is evidence to support that statement, or of any other possible crimes, Peifer said.

Authorities are asking anyone who believes Sembrat, who has reported on girls sports for many years, solicited them or had inappropriate contact with them to call Trooper Brian Murphy with the state police in Wyoming at 826-2138.

Sembrat, of Roosevelt Street, Edwardsville, has worked at the Times Leader since 1987. He covered girls field hockey, girls softball, boys and girls swimming and the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins. He left the sports department for a health beat in the spring.

“I am shocked and saddened that a long career of a prolific writer appears to be coming to an end,” Pat McHugh, president and publisher of the Times Leader, said in a written statement. “We will cooperate fully with authorities as they investigate. The Times leader will continue to report on the story as it unfolds.”

Reached later, McHugh added that the paper plans to end Sembrat’s employment.

Sembrat is president of Pocono Field Hockey, a non-profit organization he helped form in April after he left the sports beat. The organization provides playing and coaching opportunities outside of the scholastic and collegiate seasons, according to its Web site. Sembrat has said one of its goals is to create an indoor field hockey facility.

Attempts to reach a spokesperson for the group failed.

The Times Leader learned of Sembrat’s arrest Monday when he phoned the office. Sembrat said he volunteered the information because he didn’t want the paper to find out about it from another source. He said he had not yet spoken to an attorney, but planned to admit to the allegations.

“I’ve disappointed a lot of people and broken the trust of a lot of people,” Sembrat said in a phone interview from a Delaware County prison, where he was being held for failure to post 10 percent of his $250,000 bail. “I understand their feelings of anger to me at this point. I don’t expect them to understand. I don’t expect them to forgive me. I just hope that they’ll pray for me.”

Sembrat insisted he has never before tried to solicit sexual acts from a minor, either through the Internet or in person. He also said he has never made sexual advances toward any athlete, hurt any child and that he has never touched any athlete inappropriately.

“I have not made overtures toward anyone,” he said.

Sembrat lives with his 73-year-old mother, Maxine. Contacted Monday, she said she had never seen any evidence her son acted oddly toward local athletes.

“He’s been above board in his conduct with these athletes,” she said. “I would want someone to remember all the years of good work, community involvement and giving of his time.”

Karen Klassner, head field hockey coach at Wyoming Seminary, said Sembrat was set to join the team as a volunteer assistant coach when the season starts on Aug. 15. She said his position with the team had not been finalized, however, because the school was awaiting the results of a criminal background check on him.

Klassner said Sembrat’s arrest will preclude him from joining the team.

“People who have known him over the years are going to be in shock, like you were,” she said.

According to the affidavit, Sembrat began communicating with the undercover officer on March 10 through the Instant Messaging service offered by Internet provider America Online. The officer identified herself as “13/f/pa,” which Peifer said stands for “age 13, female, from Pennsylvania.” The conversations continued until July 25, when Sembrat arranged to meet the officer.

The affidavit lists several sexually graphic Internet conversations Sembrat allegedly had with the undercover officer.

In a conversation on March 10, he asked the officer if she would like “to be tied up and see what it is like.” Later in the conversation, the officer told Sembrat she was a softball player, and Sembrat replied that he would “love to tie (her) up while she was wearing her softball uniform.”

In another conversation on June 1, he asked her “how do you feel about being gagged as well as tied up?”

The affidavit also says Sembrat at times used a different screen name, [email protected] to pose as a 14-year-old girl who likes to be tied up.

Police searched Sembrat’s car following his arrest and recovered a digital camera, condoms, various ropes, duct tape, numerous bondage photos and pictures of females. Sembrat admitted he was going to use the items on the teenager he thought he was meeting, police said.

“I had rope and duct tape,” Sembrat told the Times Leader from jail. He paused then added, “for bondage. That’s the kind of stuff that’s running around in my head.”

Sembrat is charged with one count each of criminal solicitation as it relates to statutory sexual assault; criminal solicitation as it relates involuntary deviate sexual intercourse; criminal attempt to statutory sexual assault; criminal attempt to involuntary deviate sexual intercourse; criminal attempt to unlawful communication with a minors; criminal attempt to corruption of minors; criminal use of a communication facility and possession of instruments of crime.