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Sex Offender Faints Before Being Sentenced To Up To 50 Years

BUTLER, Pa. (AP) - A Pennsylvania sex offender facing a lengthy prison term for attempting to solicit a 5-year-old girl stepped before a judge and fainted before the sentence could be pronounced.

The Butler Eagle reports that 45-year-old David Ellenberger trembled, cried and passed out before being sentenced Tuesday to 25 to 50 years in prison.

He declined an offer to leave the courtroom on a stretcher.

Authorities arrested the Summit Township man when he arrived at a prearranged location expecting to meet the girl and her father. In reality, he had been chatting on the phone and in text messages with an agent posing as the girl's father.

Ellenberger was already a registered sex offender at the time of his arrest.

He was convicted in 2006 for disseminating child pornography.

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