HOLLYWOOD MAN SENTENCED FOR ATTEMPTED CHILD MOLEST AFTER INTERNET POLICE STING

HOLLYWOOD MAN SENTENCED FOR ATTEMPTED
CHILD MOLEST AFTER INTERNET POLICE STING
*Exchanged lewd messages and went to meet a fictional 12-year-old girl

SANTA ANA – Ryan Arnell Mount, 30, North Hollywood, unemployed, was sentenced today to one year in jail, five years probation, and sexual offender registration for attempting to meet and molest a fictitious 12-year-old girl he met on the Internet.  Mount is one of the 13 men, ages ranging from 19 to 51, who was charged after law enforcement conducted an Internet sexual predator operation in Laguna Beach.  He pled guilty to the court to attempted lewd acts on a child under the age of 14 and misdemeanor possession of a methamphetamine pipe. 

“We are disappointed that Mr. Mount will only serve one year in jail, as our office was advocating for a sentence of three years in state prison,” said Senior Deputy District Attorney Mike Fell of the Sexual Assault Unit, who prosecuted this case.  “Child molesters pose a serious threat to our children and communities, and anything less than state prison for these predators is inadequate.”
In February of 2006, a citizen group called Perverted-justice.com helped gather the Internet chats from 13 accused sexual predators.  All of these men were charged with attempted lewd acts on a child under the age of 14.  In addition, one defendant was charged with possession of methamphetamine.  Another was charged with sending an explicit image over the Internet. 

On February 19, 2006, Mount began engaging in Internet chats with a girl he thought was 12 years old.  He later traveled from North Hollywood to Laguna Beach at 1:30 a.m. with condoms and lubricant with the belief that the girl’s parents were out of town.  He was met by law enforcement officials in a Laguna Beach home.  The operation was conducted in cooperation with the Laguna Beach Police Department, Orange County Probation and the Orange County District Attorney’s Office.

The facts of the other cases are similar in nature.  All of them are accused of engaging in Internet chats with fictional 12 or 13-year-old girls for hours and sometimes days.  The chats detailed explicit, graphic sex talks including oral sex, masturbation and intercourse.  One man sent pornographic pictures.  Others exchanged regular photographs.  One took a pornographic DVD to the meeting.  Many of them worried about being detected by law enforcement or parents.  Many of them took sexual paraphernalia, cameras, food, flowers and alcohol to their meeting.  One of the men left his own 13-year-old daughter to have sex with a fictional 13-year-old girl.  These men came from all over Southern California with a variety of careers, including a law enforcement officer.

“Any person sick enough to lure children through cyber space should worry that they may be talking to law enforcement or someone who will turn them in.  They unfortunately bypass most forms of parental vigilance.  They come into homes behind locked doors, behind alarm systems, around the watchful eyes of parents who believe their children are safe in their room studying and working on the computer,” stated District Attorney Tony Rackauckas.  “These predators are taking advantage of children’s innocence, boredom, loneliness, insecurities and thirst for acceptance and love.” 

“We are at war with child predators who want to take our children hostage to satisfy their sick perversion.  This is a war we must win,” stated Rackauckas.
The other defendants include a then-lieutenant of California Highway Patrol, Stephen Robert Deck, 51, of Carlsbad.  Others include: Robert Carlos Alarcia, 29, Los Angeles, pharmaceutical tech; Deep Arora, 20, Placentia, unemployed; Shih-Hung Chuang, 31, Hacienda Heights, importer; Nery Roberto Folgar, 29, Alta Dena, salesperson; Benjamin Paul McAlister, 21, Loomis, student; David Phuong Pham, 30, Los Angeles, unemployed; Jonathan Augustine Reese, 40, Westchester, coffee shop supervisor; Norindra Say, 34, Tustin, engineer; Benjamin Alan Taul, 28, Placentia, bartender; Jimmy Miguel Varela, 32, Norwalk, unemployed; and John Inkyoo Yi, 43, Anaheim, laborer.

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