LOS ANGELES — A former television anchorman was scheduled to be arraigned on Wednesday after being arrested during an Internet sting operation that targeted sexual predators, authorities said.

James Kenneth Philbrick, 43, was arrested March 29 and later charged with attempted oral copulation by force, court records show.

Philbrick, who worked for KMIR-TV in Palm Springs from December 2002 to January 2006, allegedly engaged in Internet chats with an undercover police officer who posed as a 13-year-old boy, said Palm Springs police Sgt. Mitch Spike.

He was one of three men arrested in the sting operation. During the weeklong sting operation codenamed Perverted Justice, Philbrick also allegedly sent digital photos of male genitalia to the undercover officer and engaged in additional Internet conversations.

On March 29, Philbrick agreed to meet the undercover officer but drove away from the location when he spotted a police employee, Spike said. Philbrick was arrested a short while later during a traffic stop.

Jerone Basa, 35, and Wesley Brannen, 24, were also arrested in the sting operation. Basa was charged with attempted oral copulation upon a child under 14 and will be arraigned at 8:30 a.m. May 22 at Larson Justice Center. Basa is out on $50,000 bail. Brannen pleaded guilty April 13 during a preliminary hearing to attempted lewd acts upon a child under 14 and was sentenced to 18 months in prison.