El Paso County man receives no jail time after pleading guilty to attempted solicitation of a minor
May 23—A Christian filmmaker who lives in El Paso County will serve no jail time after he pleaded guilty to criminal attempt to commit online solicitation with a minor, a judge decided Tuesday.
Stephen Paul Greisen, 68, was arrested in September after allegedly attempting to pay an undercover El Paso County detective to engage in sexual acts. Prosecutors say Greisen believed that the detective was a 14-year-old girl.
During a plea hearing in March, attorneys told Judge David Gilbert that the plea agreement would require Greisen to register as a sex offender in Colorado, and serve five years in Colorado's sex offender intensive supervision probation program (SOISP).
On Tuesday, Gilbert accepted the terms of the plea agreement, which did not include jail time.
If Greisen violates the terms of his probation he could be still be subject to a jail sentence of up to five years.
A longtime friend of Greisen and professional associate who requested not to be identified told Ministry Watch in an October interview that he was shocked at Greisen's Sept. 7 arrest.
"This is a tough one for Colorado Springs, especially, due to his deep connections with top international ministries and leadership, along with the massive level of respect he engendered," the friend said.
According to an arrest affidavit, Greisen made contact with the undercover officer on Sept. 7, and despite being told twice that the age of the girl was 14, he agreed to pay $170 for sex.
"K, I can be there in 20 min?" Greisen wrote to the detective.
After arriving at the address given by the undercover detective, Greisen was arrested on charges of inducement of child prostitution, patronizing a prostituted child and sexual assault on a child. He had $180 in his pocket, according to the affidavit.
Greisen was among 12 men arrested in 2022 through undercover investigative efforts by the Colorado Springs Police Department and El Paso County Sheriff's Office's joint Internet Crimes Against Children Unit and special agents from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
In addition to Greisen, nine men arrested during the undercover operation faced the same or similar charges. Court records show that four of those men have yet to be sentenced, two received the same sentence as Greisen, one received eight years in SOISP, one received a deferred prison sentence of four years and one received an indeterminate sentence of at least four years in the Department of Corrections.
Court records show that the lone man serving a prison sentence as part of the undercover operation, 70-year-old Timothy Tischler, also pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in 2002 and received a 48-year prison sentence.
