Wichita defense lawyer Dan Monnat says entrapment involves two elements: law enforcement inducing someone to commit a crime, and the person having no predisposition to commit the crime….“The defense of entrapment reflects the sound public policy that it is unconscionable for government officers to ensnare the innocent and law-abiding into the commission of crime,” Monnat said. Entrapment exists when the criminal idea originates with government agents instead of the accused and when the accused is persuaded by the officers to commit the crime, he said.

Former Garden Plain football coach Todd Puetz, who was facing a possible sentence of five years in prison for electronic solicitation of a minor, has avoided jail time by reaching a plea agreement with prosecutors. Defense lawyer Dan Monnat said, “After a great deal of consideration, all parties agree this is an appropriate resolution. We are grateful to the Sedgwick County district attorney and the jury for permitting this resolution of the case.”

Authorities say it’s still unclear whether charges will be filed against a teen who discarded her newborn in the trash earlier this year. Local criminal defense lawyer Dan Monnat said while it’s possible charges could be filed against the teen mother or others, “any would suffer from the autopsy’s failure to determine whether the infant was born alive…. Babies and children are fragile and might just as easily be the victims of freak accidents as intentional wrongdoing.”

“Monnat told the jury that before he was arrested, police had never considered Puetz to be a potential child sex molester. Despite all the publicity surrounding the case, Monnat said, no teenage girls have come forward to say that Puetz behaved improperly around them…”

“Did you electronically solicit anyone you believed to be less than 16 years of age?” defense lawyer Dan Monnat asked as former Garden Plain football coach Todd Puetz told a Sedgwick County jury that he wasn’t looking for sex …