Internet predator sting snares Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department deputy
http://www.courttv.com/news/2007/112...force_ctv.html
By Mallory Simon
Court TV
A California sheriff's deputy arrested in a sting operation targeting Internet child predators was charged Tuesday with two felonies for allegedly trying to meet someone whom he thought was a 13-year-old girl for sex.
Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department deputy Joseph Mican Abadla Carlos, 31, was charged with meeting a minor for lewd purposes and an attempted lewd act upon a child under the age of 14.
The sting by the South Bay Predator Task Force, which resulted in the arrest of Carlos and three other men, was filmed by Court TV as part of a special called "Inside: Predator Task Force."
The task force, created by the Hawthorne Police Department with detectives from six other police departments, arrested 15 people during its 12-day operation. (VIDEO)
The show examines the task force's efforts to track down predators by logging the conversations adults have with decoys, whom they believe are underage girls. It follows officers as they arrange meetings with the suspects, set up surveillance and make arrests once the suspects make contact with the decoy.
In March,
a police detective posing as a 13-year-old girl began chatting online with a person police believed to be Carlos. In the chat, the person said he wanted to have sex with the girl and asked her to call him. A 25-year-old volunteer, who would later pose as the girl, called the number to set up a meeting.
When the man questioned the volunteer about her age and why she was interested in meeting him, she said she was an eighth grader who was "curious" about "sex."
The man told the volunteer, "You don't sound 13."
"I'm kind of worried," he said. "This could be a sting operation or something. Is it?"
The volunteer tried to reassure him, but the man continued to press the issue. He asked her to "promise" and "swear" that it was not a sting.
"You're not a cop, are you?" he asked.
After she said no, he asked if she still wanted to meet. They agreed to meet at a Chevron gas station in Inglewood. She told him she would ride her bike to the station.
Police officers set up surveillance in and around the gas station as the decoy waited for the person, who had identified himself as "Joe."
In the filmed encounter, Carlos drove into the gas station, got out of his car and walked up to the decoy.
After Carlos told her he was "Joe," officers jumped out of their vehicles and ordered him to the ground. When police checked his pockets, they found a box of condoms.
"I'm so sorry," Carlos said. "I'll never do this again, I swear."
Carlos told them he was a deputy and that he had a weapon in his car.
"You just disgraced us," Sgt. Ti Goetz said to Carlos. "This is our worst fear come true."
"Mine too," Carlos said.
He pleaded with the officers, asking if he could "just go home."
"I would say you are in serious trouble, brother," an officer replied.
On the tape, Goetz said he was "thoroughly embarrassed" to arrest another police officer for trying to have sex with a minor.
"I'm all for catching predators," Goetz said. "But I'm really disappointed to get this one."
Carlos was placed in a squad car and taken in for questioning. Detectives asked him whether they would find any child pornography if they searched his computer.
Carlos, banging his hand on the table, insisted they would find nothing.
When pressed about the computer, Carlos put his head on his arm and began to cry.
"Once in a while there's a bad apple that gets into law enforcement, just like anywhere else," one of the officers said on the tape. "We all have a black eye now."
Carlos has been free on bail since his arrest on March 31.
He was placed on paid leave following the arrest, according to a press release from the district attorney's office, but on Nov. 9, a spokesman for Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca said the department had begun termination proceedings against Carlos.
He faces four years in state prison if convicted.
"Inside: Predator Task Force" will air on December 2 at 10 p.m. ET on Court TV.