Ex-Intel employee Scott Berger, 40, sent more than a dozen explicit email messages from his computer at the company's Chandler, Arizona, plant to a chat room member he believed to be a 13-year-old girl. But when he went to a shopping mall to meet his chat room partner, 'she' turned out to be an undercover (male) detective.

Berger was a member of the local town council and was running for mayor of Queen Creek when he was busted. He was fired from Intel and unsurprisingly dropped out of the mayoral race after the arrest. He was sentenced to six years probation for the attempted rape of a child, banned from using a home computer and ordered to undergo three years of therapy for sex addiction.

Berger, who admitted the crime and his addiction last week, will also have to register as a sex offender until 2015.

The arrest resulted from a Tacoma, Washington, police sting set up to catch adults preying on children through Internet chat rooms. It is not known if the policeman with a penchant for masquerading as a 13-year-old girl will also have to undergo therapy. ®