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Expelled Columbus Clergy Student Arrested For Seeking Sex With Baby

Sam Hendren

Federal authorities say an Ohio seminary student has been arrested in California on suspicion of intending to travel to Mexico to have sex with a toddler or baby.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement said in a statement that 23-year-old Joel Wright was taken into custody after getting off a plane in San Diego.

Authorities say he had written emails to an undercover agent posing as a travel guide that he wanted to adopt or purchase a female child under age 3 in Tijuana, Mexico, for the purposes of having sex with her.

He's scheduled to be arraigned Monday, and an after-hours call to determine whether he has an attorney wasn't immediately returned.

Wright attends Pontifical College Josephinum in Columbus. A school spokesman, the Rev. John Allen, tells the Columbus Dispatch they are "shocked and saddened" at the "reprehensible" allegations. Wright has been expelled. 

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