Our client was a successful industrial engineer who got entrapped by an undercover officer on Craigslist. The officer posted an ad claiming to be an 18-year-old boy looking for someone to have sex with. After our client responded to the ad, the officer changed the boy’s age and said that he was just 15 years old. Our client continued to converse with the officer and eventually agreed to meet him to have sex. When our client arrived to meet the boy, he was immediately arrested with condoms in his possession.
The client was indicted in DeKalb County Superior Court for the offense of computer exploitation. We were able to show that our client would have never responded to this ad if he knew that the “boy” was only 15. Not only did the officer represent in the ad that he was 18 years old, but the picture that he sent to our client during their email chats was clearly of an 18 year-old boy. He even admitted to this during the preliminary hearing. Also, the officers had seized our client’s laptop at the time of his arrest. A forensic examination of the computer revealed no child pornography or any online activity with minors. Lastly, our client underwent a psychosexual evaluation which revealed that he had no sexual interest in children and no signs of pedophilia.
It was clear that our client had a solid entrapment defense and we presented this to the DA’s office prior to trial. The DA agreed to offer our client a plea to a misdemeanor offense with twelve months probation. As a result, the client did not have to register as a sex offender, was not a convicted felon, and did not have to serve any time in jail.
