Over the past year, Texas detectives in the Fort Bend County Sheriff’s Office and sexual assault task force partners have cast a wide net, arresting over 13 suspects caught engaging in the online solicitation or exploitation of a minor. The bait: social media sites.
According to news sources, the suspects varied in age from 18 to 66 and are residents of Fulshear, Richmond, Rosenberg, Katy, Conroe, Houston, Tomball, Spring, Jersey Village and Cypress.
“We go out online and place ourselves between the bad guys and the kids,” said Sgt. Jarret Nethery, detective at the Fort Bend County Sheriff’s Office. “We go out and use social media sites…internet Web sites and applications.”
This proactive investigative technique is unprecedented in local law enforcement. While some are praising the Fort Bend County Sheriff’s Office, others are unsure about the controversial new strategies being used by Texas’s finest.
Houston criminal defense attorney Neal Davis has received dozens of calls from the suspects’ families since the controversial stings began. His worry is that individuals are being entrapped into a crime and that undercover detectives are being unclear about their alleged age online. Neal is also concerned about the charges being levied with these arrests.
As Mr. Davis writes in his firm’s blog:
What is unusual, aside from this seemingly interminable dragnet, is that the State is charging defendants with not only online solicitation of a child, but the flip side of the coin–attempted sexual assault of a minor. This lets the State double-dip on charges, jack up bonds, and try to coerce pleas (“If your client doesn’t plead today to one count, we won’t waive a judge and will go to the jury on both charges!”). The bond conditions are oppressive even for a case of this nature.
Although Davis has years of experience in handling child sex crimes and computer crimes, such as online solicitation of a minor or child pornography, he goes on to say, “I have never seen anything like the ongoing sting operation in Fort Bend, Texas.”