Man pleads guilty in child sex case

May 6, 2025

By Allison Scarbrough, News Editor

Lucht

LUDINGTON — A 23-year-old man recently pleaded guilty in Mason County’s 51st Circuit Court to four felony counts in connection to a sting operation in which a police officer was posing as a 14-year-old boy.

Dustin William Lucht pleaded guilty to child sexually abusive commercial activity, two counts of using a computer to commit a crime, and accosting a child for immoral purposes. Lucht faces at a minimum prison term of three years.

“This was a Cobbs with the court of 36 months to 20 years (with the) Michigan Department of Corrections or the bottom end of the guidelines as calculated at sentencing,” said Mason County Prosecuting Attorney Beth Hand. “Currently, the guidelines are calculated at 36 months on the low end. This was a sting, and a member of law enforcement was posing as a 14-year-old boy.”

A Cobbs plea “authorizes the trial court, at the request of a party, to state on the record the sentence that appears appropriate for the charged offense, on the basis of information available to the court at the time (Cobbs, 443 Mich at 283),” according to courts.michigan.gov. “Even when a defendant pleads guilty or nolo contendere (no contest) to the charged offense in reliance on the court’s preliminary determination regarding the defendant’s likely sentence, the court retains discretion over the actual sentence imposed should additional information dictate the imposition of a longer sentence. If the court determines it will exceed its previously stated sentence, the defendant has an absolute right to withdraw the plea.”

Sentencing is scheduled for June 24 at 10:50 a.m. Lucht remains lodged in the Mason County Jail on a $50,000 cash/surety bond, according to court records.

________________________

Please Support Local News

Receive daily MCP and OCP news briefings along with email news alerts for $10 a month. Your contribution will help us to continue to provide you with free local news. 

Payment can be made monthly via credit card, bank account, PayPal or Venmo through recurring email invoicing. These payments can be set up for autopay each month. 

To sign up, email editor@mediagroup31.com. In the subject line write: Subscription. Please supply your name, email address, mailing address, and phone number (indicate cell phone). We will not share your information with any outside sources. For more than one email address in a household, the cost is $15 per month per email address. 

Alternative methods:

  • We can send you an invoice for a yearly payment of $120, which you can conveniently pay online or by check. If you are interested in this method, please email editor@mediagroup31.com and we can sign you up. You can also mail a yearly check for $120 to Media Group 31, PO Box 21, Scottville, MI 49454 (please include your email address).

Payment must be made in advance prior to subscription activation. 

We appreciate all our readers regardless of whether they choose to continue to access our service for free or with a monthly financial support.

_____

This story and original photography are copyrighted © 2025, all rights reserved by Media Group 31, LLC, PO Box 21, Scottville, MI 49454. No portion of this story or images may be reproduced in any way, including print or broadcast, without expressed written consent.

As the services of Media Group 31, LLC are news services, the information posted within the sites are archivable for public record and historical posterity. For this reason it is the policy and practice of this company to not delete postings. It is the editor’s discretion to update or edit a story when/if new information becomes available. This may be done by editing the posted story or posting a new “follow-up” story. Media Group 31, LLC or any of its agents have the right to make any changes to this policy. Refer to Use Policy for more information.

 

Eats & Drinks

Eats & Drinks

Eats & Drinks