| For Immediate Release March 28, 2007 |
Contact: Farrah Emami Spokesperson Office: 714-347-8405 Cell: 714-323-4486 |
MAN FACES TRIAL FOR ATTEMPTING TO MEET
A FAKE 12-YEAR-OLD GIRL AFTER EXCHANGING
SEXUAL INTERNET MESSAGES
*Defendant is the first in Orange County to stand trial in a Perverted-Justice case
NEWPORT BEACH – An unemployed Placentia man faces trial tomorrow for trying to meet a fictitious 12-year-old girl with whom he exchanged explicit sexual messages over the internet. Deep Arora, 20, is the first defendant to be tried in Orange County as a result of internet sting operations conducted by Perverted-Justice.com, a citizen group aimed at protecting children from internet sexual predators.
Arora is charged with one felony count of attempted lewd acts on a child under 14 and faces a maximum sentence of four years in prison if convicted. Opening statements are scheduled to begin tomorrow, Thursday, March 29, 2007 at 9:00 a.m. in Department H-12, Harbor Justice Center, Newport Beach.
On the evening of February 18, 2006, Deep is accused of having sexually explicit chats on MySpace.com with a fictitious 12-year-old girl. He is accused of exchanging messages for approximately one hour and 15 minutes, and asking the girl to have sex with him. Deep is accused of driving to an apartment in Laguna Beach immediately after finishing the Internet chats with the intent to have sex with the girl. He is accused of arriving at the apartment with a plastic bag containing condoms and chocolates.
Deep, along with 12 other men, was arrested as a result of the internet sexual predator operation conducted in cooperation with Perverted-Justice.com, the Laguna Beach Police Department, Orange County Probation and the Orange County District Attorney’s Office. The status of the pending cases for the other defendants may be reviewed at www.orangecountyda.com by selecting “Cases in the News.” Those defendants are; Robert Carlos Alarcia, 30, Los Angeles, pharmaceutical tech, Shih-Hung Chuang, 32, Hacienda Heights, importer, Stephen Robert Deck, 53, Carlsbad, Lieutenant of California Highway Patrol, Benjamin Paul McAlister, 22, Loomis, student, David Phuong Pham, 31, Los Angeles, unemployed, Jonathan Augustine Reese, 41, Westchester, supervisor at Starbucks,