With his wife and the mother of his three young children sobbing in the gallery, Baden police Officer Kenneth Jones sat silently at the defense table yesterday as the FBI lay bare his secret life of trolling homosexual chat rooms, collecting child pornography and setting up sex liaisons with a 14-year-old boy in shopping mall parking lots.

"This is clearly something that was out of control," said Assistant U.S. Attorney Tina Miller in arguing that Jones, 38, a veteran officer who worked with children in the Drug Abuse Resistance Education program, should be jailed pending trial.

"This [compulsion] is not something that will go away. I don't think society is safe with someone like Mr. Jones running around."

But Jones' lawyer, Michael Bartko, said his client is not a danger and that his family, including his wife, mother and mother-in-law, were all willing to monitor him.

"What we have here is someone who needs help, not jail," Bartko said. "He's not going to be 'running around.' He's not a threat."

In the end, U.S. Magistrate Lisa Pupo Lenihan released Jones to the custody of his mother-in-law, Linda Babich, of Aliquippa, specifying that he will have to wear an electronic monitor.

That order was stayed, however, pending an appeal of the release by the U.S. attorney's office.

Despite her ruling, Lenihan made known what she thought of Jones' conduct.

"I have a 14-year-old son at home," she said, "and I clearly do not condone what has been alleged here."

Those allegations, recounted by FBI Agent Edward Moschella, have stunned Jones' family, especially his wife, Tammy, who has been married to him for 12 years and knew him as a good police officer and caring family man for their three children, the youngest of whom is 5.

But online chats recovered from his basement computer, combined with statements from the victim and Jones' confession, uncovered what Miller called the officer's "parallel life" as a "very aggressive child predator."

A forensic examination of the 14-year-old's computer showed that Jones, who called himself "bcpaguy" online, had sexual conversations with the boy starting in May. The boy said they had sex the first time in June in Jones' van.

Federal agents from the U.S. attorney's Crimes Against Children Task Force became involved early last month following a request for help from Beaver County detectives.

Federal agents arrested Jones last week after setting up a sting in which an FBI agent posed as the boy online and arranged a bogus tryst for Wednesday evening to see if Jones would show up.

An FBI surveillance team watched as Jones left the Baden police station in his van and drove to the meeting point in a shopping mall parking lot, Moschella said.

When the boy didn't appear, Jones went home, got online and asked where he was. Moschella said the officer then tried to set up another meeting for the following day, and this time asked the boy to "bring a friend along."

Agents served their arrest warrant the next day and searched the house.

Moschella said Jones waived his Miranda rights and told agents that he had his first homosexual experience at age 12 with another boy that age. He said he fought his urges, but eventually gravitated to pornography and sex chat rooms and finally to trysts. He said his first was with the 14-year-old, and the two have had sex four or five times.

Jones also said he had contact with three other young men, two of whom he described as college students and a third as a high school student from Ohio.

Moschella said Jones was matter-of-fact when agents talked to him about what he had been doing while outwardly giving every appearance as an upstanding citizen.

"He was just real quiet about the whole thing," he said. "He was compliant with regard to the interview, but otherwise emotionless."

Jones, a 14-year veteran of the force, had worked as a DARE officer at State Street Elementary School in Baden and was known throughout the Beaver County law enforcement community.

As part of her order releasing him, Lenihan ordered Jones to turn over his service weapon.

It is unlikely he will ever get it back. Federal defendants charged with crimes against children almost always plead guilty.