Wichita ? Just hours after meeting in St. Louis with U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales over child protection initiatives, U.S. Attorney Eric Melgren called for a news conference the following day on the first federal case in Kansas under the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act.

On Friday, Melgren announced the prosecution of Armando Beltran-Gonzalez for failure to register as a sex offender. Melgren, along with U.S. attorneys nationwide, also unveiled at the same time a U.S. Department of Justice’s public service advertising campaign to educate teenagers about the dangers of posting personal information online.

Beltran-Gonzalez, 43, was indicted Wednesday on one count of failing to register as a sex offender and one count of unlawfully re-entering the U.S. after being convicted of an aggravated felony and deported.

Melgren said he was taking advantage of the national news on the Justice Department’s ad campaign to combine with it the announcement of the state’s first prosecution under the Adam Walsh Act. Melgren said he had been prepared to go to the grand jury with the case before he even knew Gonzales was going to be meeting in St. Louis with U.S. attorneys.

“Obviously today is a national rollout and we were asked if we had something nationally for Project Safe Childhood … but the fact he was indicted by a grand jury Wednesday is kind of irrelevant to my meeting with the Attorney General yesterday,” Melgren said.

Beltran-Gonzalez’s arraignment in federal court next week on the sex registry charge marks the first case in the state prosecuted under the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act of 2006. The federal law toughens penalties for convicted child molesters and requires that they be listed on a national Internet database.

It gives prosecutors a new tool in the battle to give children a safe childhood, Melgren said.

Melgren told reporters that the most surprising thing he’s found since he took the job as U.S. Attorney in Kansas was the depravity of child sex predators.

“My boss, U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, feels the same way,” Melgren said, saying Gonzales was shocked and horrified about the nature of such crimes when he was briefed on them after taking office. “Because of that he launched in February last year one of his top priorities, the Project Safe Childhood initiative.”

If convicted for failing to register as a sex offender, Beltran-Gonzalez could be sentenced to as much as 10 years in federal prison and a fine of up to $250,000. He also faces a penalty of up to 20 years and a fine of up to $250,000 on the immigration charge.

Beltran-Gonzalez, a citizen of Mexico, was convicted in 1995 on a charge of aggravated indecent solicitation of a child. At the time he was a lawful permanent resident, but following his conviction and deportation appeals he was deported in October 2005, prosecutors said.

Beltran-Gonzalez was found March 2 in Sedgwick County, where he had apparently been living and working since August.

His defense attorney, Steven K. Gradert, could not be reached Friday for comment.