SANDUSKY, Mich. (AP) - A Florida prosecutor who authorities say flew to Michigan for an expected sexual encounter with a 5-year-old girl has tried to hang himself in his jail cell.

John D.R. Atchison was being held on federal child sex solicitation charges at the Sanilac County Jail, 75 miles north of Detroit.

A cell mate shouted when he saw Atchison trying to hang himself with a sheet. Guards stopped him.

Atchison is an assistant U.S. attorney in Pensacola, Florida.

Authorities say he went to Michigan to meet what he thought was the mother of a 5-year-old girl with whom he arranged to have sex. The woman was a detective working in an Internet sex sting operation.


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