The Clearfield County district attorney suggested this week that potential child molesters who seek to contact their victims online would be more appropriately prosecuted in their home counties rather than luring them here.

The comments by DA Ryan P. Sayers came after the brouhaha that arose when Shyam Gouli, now 35, of Hicksville, N.Y., arrived in Clearfield Jan. 3 expecting to have a tryst with a 15-year-old girl.

Gouli thought he had been communicating with the teenager, but she was actually a 49-year-old associated with a group known as the 814 Pred Hunters.

The group scans communications in western Pennsylvania in search of potential sex offenders.

Gouli was attracted to a fake profile of a teenager posted on social media sites.

He arranged to meet the young girl in Clearfield, traveling by rail and bus.

He was greeted by members of the predators’ group, and police were called.

Gouli was placed in the Clearfield County Prison after being charged with attempting to corrupt a minor and criminal use of a communication facility.

The case moved quickly to the common pleas court, and Gouli was offered a plea agreement.

He believed he was going to serve 90 days in prison and be released.

However negotiations between Gouli’s attorney, Public Defender Chris Pentz, and the prosecution broke down, and Sayers indicated the plea deal never was completed.

The Gouli case was then placed on the court’s trial list.

Meanwhile Gouli, who thought he had a plea deal, began to protest when he was not released on April 3 — the alleged expiration date of his sentence.

In late April, he filed two lawsuits in the U.S. District Court in Johnstown, charging he was being illegally held and contending his Fourth, Fifth, Eighth and Tenth Amendments rights were violated.

Gouli appeared before Clearfield President Judge Fredric Ammerman last week and was sentenced to 128 days (time served) and was released from prison.

Sayers denies that Gouli was being illegally held.

He maintains Gouli rejected the initial plea agreement and was placed on the trial list with jury selection scheduled for today.

Sayers said that communications between the two sides apparently broke down.

Gouli, who speaks Hindi and Nepali, misunderstood what occurred during the plea negotiations, even though an interpreter was present.

Sayers blamed “language and cognitive” issues for the misunderstanding that led to Gouli’s ongoing incarceration.

In reviewing the case, Sayers rejected Gouli’s claims that he was wronged, noting he did plead guilty and he has been released from custody.

Pentz, Gouli’s attorney, attempted to withdraw his representation because Gouli named him as a defendant in the lawsuits. Ammerman rejected Pentz’s request.

Pentz was not available to discuss the Gouli case.

A spokesperson in his office stated, “We don’t talk to the media.”

Sayers also commented that there may be a better way to handle cases that involve groups like the 814 Pred Hunters.

Discussions with other DAs and with law enforcement suggest that suspects of such groups should be prosecuted in their home counties, Sayers stated.

He noted the actual crime in this case was committed by Gouli while in his hometown of Hicksville which is in Nassau County, N.Y.

“I am of the opinion it (the prosecution) should be where it (the crime) was committed,” he stated.

He pointed out Gouli will be on probation for the next year and his supervision will likely be transferred to New York.

Gouli meanwhile requested that he be appointed an attorney to handle his federal lawsuit.

The request was rejected by federal Magistrate Judge Keith A. Pesto in Johnstown.

Pesto pointed out Gouli had $1,883 in his prison account.

“An inmate plaintiff does not pay for housing or food, and his motion and account statement indicate that he has no dependents,” Pesto reasoned.

He concluded that Congress ensures that litigants have access to court. It does not relieve an inmate litigant from making the same choices about spending.