We have all seen the TV shows and heard the news reports of people being arrested in sting operations designed the catch adults using the internet to meet minors for sex acts. If you have been arrested, or accused of “Traveling to Meet a Minor”, or “Using the Computer to Solicit a Minor” it is important that you seek the services of an experienced attorney. Attorney Anthony Rickman has been successful in representing clients accused of Traveling to meet a minor. Contact us today for a free consultation.
Traveling to meet a minor is a serious offense and if convicted you do face the possibility of a substantial prison sentence and would be required to register as a sexual offender. The crime of Traveling to Meet a Minor to Commit an Unlawful Sex Act is committed when a person: Uses an on-line service, app, internet service, or electronic device to seduce, solicit, lure, or entice a person believed to be a minor child to engage in an unlawful sexual conduct; and Travels to a location for the purpose of engaging in sexual conduct with the child.. It should be important to note that to prove this crime the state does not need to show that you actually contacted the minor at the location just that you traveled. Furthermore the person you traveled to meet does not have to be a minor as long as there is sufficient evidence to establish your intent to meet a minor.
Often times a traveling to meet a minor charge is the product a government undercover sting operation. During these stings officers pose on websites, web apps and classifieds as minors for the purpose of finding those they believe are interred in sexual contact with minors. These Government operations involve tactics that could be illegal such as entrapment.
A law enforcement officer, a person engaged in cooperation with a law enforcement officer, or a person acting as an agent of a law enforcement officer perpetrates an entrapment if, for the purpose of obtaining evidence of the commission of a crime, he or she induces or encourages and, as a direct result, causes another person to engage in conduct constituting such crime by employing methods of persuasion or inducement which create a substantial risk that such crime will be committed by a person other than one who is ready to commit it.
Law enforcement cannot originate a criminal design, implant on an innocent person’s mind the disposition to commit the crime and then induce the commission of that crime so that the Government may prosecute. Often times in these to catch a predator cases law enforcement uses tactics to lure ordinary people to travel to a location by lying or deceiving the individual, seeking a person out when that person gives no indication they are looking for children and has no predisposition to commit the crime, by never stating or verifying their alleged age, by sending photos of attractive adults to the person as opposed to a child, or by instigating sexual conversation and enticing these individuals to travel to the officers location by manipulating their emotions or making repeated pleas.If you have been entrapped by law enforcement your case could be dismissed.