Man Caught Soliciting a Fourteen Year Old

Recently a teacher in Queens County was arrested in a sting operation that could’ve been featured on that TV show “To Catch a Predator.”  You know the one, where the police go online posing as an underage female looking to have sex with an adult.  Inevitably, the adult sets up a face­ to-face rendezvous  and shows up ready to go, but sadly finds out that the underage female is an undercover cop.

The NYPD has a whole unit set-up to fish for these types of adults that they consider pedophiles.  If you’re in an online chat room and the person that you’re communicating with writes that he/she is 16 years old or younger, you immediately should write that you are not interested and discontinue the conversation.  The cop will always mention how old “she” is because the age is the key factor in the prosecution.  It’s not against the law to meet someone online who is 17 years old or older and to engage in sexual activity with him/her; however, it is against the law to meet, or even try to meet, someone under the age of 17.

Surfing the net, chatting online with strangers and visiting free pornographic sites may seem like harmless activities, and most of the time they are, but some get carried away and “step over the line.”   You must be very careful about what you write, who you correspond with and, most importantly, who you solicit for a face-to-face meeting.  Even if your intentions  are noble, you’re going to get caught in the net and have a difficult time convincing the District Attorney’s Office that you did not intend to do anything unsavory.

If you’re  involved in this type of prosecution, feel free to call a Queens Criminal Defense Attorney at the Law Offices of Michael Dreishpoon 24 hours a day (718-793-5555).