S.C. man pleads guilty to sexual contact with 8-year-old Hempfield girl

Jan. 26—A convicted sex offender from South Carolina was ordered to serve up to seven years in prison for having improper sexual contact via online messages with an 8-year-old Hempfield girl nearly eight years ago.

David B. Poplin, 36, was originally charged by the Pennsylvania State Police in August 2015, a year after a Grapeville woman reported that an unknown person named "Dave" had sexually explicit conversations with her daughter through Kik, a messaging app, according to court records.

Police said Poplin sent the child a picture of his genitals and attempted to arrange a meeting.

Investigators conducted a forensic examination of an iPad used by the girl and were able to link the messages to an address in Durham, N.C., and to Poplin.

Police said they learned Poplin was a registered a sex offender as a result of a 2011 conviction in South Carolina for having sexual conduct with a 15-year-old girl in 2008.

According to court records, the Pennsylvania case against Poplin sat dormant until he was found last summer in South Carolina and extradited to Westmoreland County in August.

In court Tuesday, Poplin pleaded guilty to one felony count of unlawful contact with a minor and was sentenced by Common Pleas Judge Tim Krieger to three to seven years in prison and three years on probation.

As part of the sentence, the judge barred Poplin from using social media, smartphones, tablets and other mobile devices and ruled that all of his electronic devices are subject to random searches at the discretion of a parole officer.

Felony counts of criminal solicitation, dissemination of explicit sexual materials to minors and corruption of a minor were dismissed.

Rich Cholodofsky is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Rich by email at rcholodofsky@triblive.com or via Twitter .