For years, Emmett Salberg Jr. has been poking fun at the City of Eagan and its former mayor by posting unflattering parody on his Web site, cityofeagan.org.

City officials have long complained the Web address was too similar to the city’s own, tripping up online visitors looking for information on municipal services. They privately labeled him a “1 percenter” — one of a small group of residents who take up large chunks of city staff time with frequent requests for information about sometimes frivolous concerns.

County prosecutors now contend Salberg has gone too far — by using his “parody” site to target a private individual.

A criminal complaint filed by the Dakota County attorney’s office this week accuses Salberg of posting derogatory images online of an Eagan man and demanding thousands of dollars to pull them down.

Salberg, 44, faces two counts of felony coercion and one count of gross misdemeanor harassment.

The victim’s wife approached Eagan police this month and said the harassment started after her husband had an affair with Salberg’s wife, according to the charges. She told police the affair ended in September. Two months later, Salberg effectively waged electronic war by sending the couple frequent e-mails and posting doctored images on his Web site, the complaint states.

One of the doctored images was of the man with writing superimposed over his shirt that read, “I cheat on my wife.”

Typed on the page was the text, “This King Douche cheated on his wife for 2.5 years while he made her work two jobs to make up for his low paying job he has at (his employer). … While (victim) said he was working, he was really cheating on his wife and giving away marijuana from his garage.”

Another image was of the son of the victim’s wife, with print superimposed over the son’s sweat shirt that read, “My daddy shaves his pee pee.”

Salberg allegedly refused to take the sites down unless the man apologized for the affair.

In December, Salberg claimed he had access to the victim’s e-mail address book and threatened to send messages to all of the couple’s “friends, relatives, hockey parents” letting them know “what a cheating little bitch” the man was, according to charges.

The message read: “In fact, if I was to send them all a note just before Christmas, you would have something to talk about at get-togethers. I guess you will just have to wait and see. Happy holidays.”

In June, Salberg allegedly let the couple know that whenever anyone typed the victim’s name into Google, the first Web site that popped up would redirect them to cheaters.com. He said he would sell the couple the site for $5,000, according to the complaint.

“He stated that he believed that the victim would soon be looking for new employment,” the complaint reads. “He said it wouldn’t be helpful to have that Web site come up every time someone Googled the victim’s name.”

Salberg was arrested by warrant this week and booked briefly into the Dakota County Jail. A reporter’s repeated efforts to interview him were unsuccessful.

Salberg’s Web site, cityofeagan.org., was still operational Thursday but no longer displays images of the victim.

Despite the city’s past dispute with Salberg, Eagan spokesman Tom Garrison said the city played no role in initiating the criminal investigation.

In March, the city’s efforts to force Salberg to abandon the site fell flat after a negative ruling from the National Arbitration Forum. Eagan officials also were interested in acquiring city-ofeagan.com, which directs traffic to Salberg’s site.

But under a legal agreement Salberg and his wife signed July 6, the city paid them $2,000 for the domain names. Garrison said Thursday that the transfer was under way and that the sites could be in the city’s possession within the next few days.

Salberg’s recent posting on the site indicates he will be abandoning it. The last message is entitled “Good bye.”

Frederick Melo can be reached at 651-228-2172.