LATHROP, California — Detectives like Irene Shelvay with the San Joaquin Sheriff's Office have spent years developing the skills they need to catch men looking to have sex with prostitutes, including boys or girls.
Shelvay is a Child Abuse Sexual Assault Detective with the San Joaquin County Sheriffs Office, and after posing a 13-year-old girl online looking to have sex with an older man, she got someone "on the hook."
"Hey, are you going to come to Lathrop, or?," Shelvay said to a man on the other end of the telephone call.
She has done this now for two years as part of a special operations the San Joaquin County Sheriffs Department conducts to catch people looking to have sex with prostitutes, including boys or girls.
"We're using decoy photographs. They're all adults on the photographs, but they look young for the minor-side of things," said Shalvay, who has also played a role as an adult human trafficking victim looking to escort out of the Lathrop area.
Beginning Monday April 15, the sheriff's office put up ads on sex websites, apps, and on Craigslist looking to hook potential sexual predators.
Before Friday night's operation began, 17 were arrested on charges such as the following:
- attempting lewd or lascivious acts with a minor under 13
- arranging to meet with a minor
- meeting or going to meet with a minor
- sending harmful material to a minor, like sexually explicit pictures
"Honestly, it's the whole spectrum. We have come into contact with professionals, executives, managers of businesses, lawyers," says interim Lathrop Police Services Chief Ryan Biedermann, who runs the special operation.
"It's typically people with zero criminal history," he added. "They're not on probation parole. This is sometimes - and we've seen it - where it's their first contact with law enforcement. And, they're well within their 40's, 50's, 60's [in terms of years] of age."
A local hotel was used with two rooms the targets were led to believe they would be hooking-up in.
For one room, the targets were sent there if detectives believed they had built enough evidence online or through texts or phone calls to make an arrest.
A second room was set up using either a male or female decoy to interact with a target so the detectives could monitor and build a case to make an arrest.
So, where does a "John" cross the line?
"It's the age," said Biedermann. "When it's a juvenile, everyone knows that the ages of a juvenile [is] 18 or under, but it's even more of a specific crime in regards to sex when it's 14 or under."
If a money deal is agreed to, it can be another point where a target has crossed the line legally and can be arrested, investigators said.
During the five days leading up to Friday night's operation, detectives received close to 10,000 texts and phone calls from people looking to take part in some type of sexual activity.
When the operation wrapped-up Friday night, a total of 24 were arrested.
The majority were arrested for trying to have sex with a juvenile, while some were arrested for straight prostitution or felony warrants.
Authorities say one suspect even carried a loaded hand gun in his waist band while detained.
This is the seventh special operations sex sting in three years that the San Joaquin County Sheriffs Office has set up.
"You have to stay on top of your kids. This level of communication sometimes happens in as little as an hour or a couple days, and these people are showing up," said Biedermann.
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