Acquittals, Appeals, and Hope
Not all cases end up in jail or prison. Some get acquitted (Not Guilty), some get a hung jury, others fight during an appeal and some get charges reduced or dismissed early on.
Different jurisdictions come down harder than others. I’ve seen probation and suspended sentences all the way up to some jail time to 5+ years in prison for being caught up in these sting operations. Even with no prior convictions people have gotten between 5-10 years prison time.
Many of these cases do NOT go to trial and end up pleading out. Some statistics out of Florida showed that out of 608 cases/entries there were 47 trials (7.73%) with 38 guilty and 9 not guilty verdicts. The general conclusion I drew from this is about 19-20% of cases going to trial won. These are not great odds but may worth pursuing with a good lawyer.
Though it can be hard to prove and most courts don’t accept the Entrapment defense that is what these cases really are. For entrapment one would need to prove (depending on jurisdiction) “that the police conduct would illegitimately ensnare normally law-abiding individuals in an illegal conversation they would not have otherwise pursued.” Could the conduct of the police induce a law-abiding person to commit these type of acts? To me the fact that SO MANY people, especially those with no priors, get caught up in this answers this question with a resounding YES.
Below are cases I found which offer Hope:
- 1998 April: Utah man acquitted by a jury. He was invited by the children’s mother. Hey, these things have been going on a long time!
- 2010 December: Attorney Obtains Acquittal in Sex-Sting Case – In Minnesota.
- 2011 August: ‘Dateline: To Catch a Predator’ Case Ends in Acquittal – Captured in 2006 in California. Only case that went to trial in this sting, the other 28 plead guilty! He was kicked out of the Navy and spent a year in jail. Press Democrat link.
- 2012 April: Court overturns conviction in Craigslist sex sting – Appellate court overturned, allowed for new trial. Original sentence was 5 years probation and registration as sex offender for life. Unknown if retried?
- 2012 December: Charges Dismissed Against Former Child Sex Crimes Prosecutor For Lack Of Actual Minor In FBI Sting – Interesting article about lawyer getting captured and fighting the system in Alabama; no child = no charge. On further reading of the case, I believe they closed the door/loophole he used.
- 2013 November: Man Acquitted in TallyOp Internet Sex Sting – Argued it was law enforcement officers who did the “enticing, soliciting and luring” in Florida. Called him 3x after he stopped texting.
- 2014 January: Sex sting raises entrapment issues – A case in Florida, posting on Craigslist.
- 2014 April: Third man acquitted of child enticement charges – From a 2013 case in Mississippi. Posting on a dating site.
- 2014 September: Man acquitted of sex charges explains high price of justice system – Acquitted in Montana.
- 2015 Feb: Boseman dismissing of sex sting case – A judge in Boseman, MT dismissed a case just prior to trial due to rights of privacy and not obtaining a warrant. Interactions were done via Facebook back in 2013.
- 2015 July: Colorado man wants apology from police after arrest in child sex sting – Caught in Operation Broken Heart in April, 2015. One of 9 arrested.
- 2016 April: Charges Dismissed – A Minneapolis man got case dismissed for lack of probable cause.
- 2016 May: Operation Mayday defendant acquitted – Georgia sting in May of 2015. Person never went to door of home. Never left vehicle and was arrested as he drove away. Several of those charged were sentenced to 7-8 years in prison.
- 2016 September: A Child Sex Crime Sting that Did Not Work – Out of New York.
- 2016 December: Outrageous Conduct – A Mount Vernon, Washington sting operation case was dismissed from 2014. Was one of six men caught in sting operation. Case was only second case in Washington State to get dismissed due to outrageous government conduct. Prosecutor appealed this case and the Court of Appeals upheld the Trail Courts decision. Read a TechDirt Article about this outrageous Craigslist Sex Sting Operation.
- 2017 February: Conviction overturned – A dentist in Maryland had his conviction overturned on appeal.
- 2017 May: Navy officer cleared of attempted teen sex-assault charges by military jury – Sting operation of out Japan.
- 2017 September: Guardian Angel Sting. A case in Minneapolis returned a not guilty verdict to a sting operation.
- 2018 February: Federal Jury acquitted Auburn man. A case in Georgia finds 26 year old man Not Guilty. Another guy in same sting operation was found Guilty by Federal Jury just a few days later.
- 2018 June: Texas man found not guilty in solicitation of a minor (sting operation).
- 2018 August: Macon Man Acquitted. Another case in Georgia from 2015 where they captured and initially charged 12 people. This 27 year old man was acquitted–he showed up at hotel, waited 15-20 minutes then left. They captured him when he left. This was a Craiglist mom and daughter sting operation. He did not take the stand. “He withdrew; they pursued” the attorney stated. Jury agreed and acquitted.
- 2018 November: Not an Acquittal but close. This 22 year-old man was caught in a stepfather daughter sting operation out of New York. He went to trial and lost and during sentencing was credited with time served and probation instead of four years or more.
- 2019 January: A Net Nanny Appeal in Washington State resulted in two of three charges being reversed. It will go down to the lower court and dismissed or retried with allowance of the Entrapment defense. This is a BIG WIN with respect to the Net Nanny sting operations going on in Washington State.
- 2019 January: Probation for the Deacon A 74 year old deacon plead guilty and will server 2 years probation after being caught in an undercover sting operation.
- 2019 May: Ulster County Court Jury (in NY) acquitted a man of attempted rape. Many of the others in the 2018 sting operation plead guilty.
- 2019 June: Catfished No jail time for meeting actual 11 year old and charged with molestation. This was NOT a sting but actual victim who claimed she was older than she was.
- 2019 June: Net Nanny #11 Loss. A second acquittal in the Washington State Net Nanny sting operations. This one took a full four days with defendant taking the stand. The jury deliberated for 2 days before coming to a decision. One of the few trials where the entrapment argument was allowed. This should help set some precedence to law enforcement overreach.
- 2019 July: New Haven A man involved in sting operation took a plea and received a 10 year suspended sentence. He was arrested back in Jan 2018–so took 18 months to resolve this case.
- 2019 Dec: Net Nanny #1 Charges Dismissed. Finally the Net Nanny stings out of Washington State are breaking. Here is an acquittal which reversed the lower courts non allowance of entrapment. It went down to the lower court and they dismissed the charge.
- 2020 Mar: Sting case tossed after error by prosecutor During a trial last spring (2019) the judge found the prosecutor acted in willful disregard and barred retrial on double jeopardy and dismissed the case with prejudice, meaning it cannot be refiled. Huge victory out of New Mexico. Those who were convicted all got probation.
- 2020 Mar: Net Nanny #15 Case Dismissed. “…respectfully moves the Court for an order dismissing the above-entitled action against the defendant, on the grounds and for the following reasons: in the interest of justice.” A Net Nanny case was finally dismissed without prejudice. This is practically unheard of in the state of Washington. It wasn’t the Judge but the Prosecutor who dismissed the case after 1 year and 1 month. The brief facts are the lead sergeant, Carlos Rodriguez, deleted text from the conversation that was critical to the case where the Role playing topic DDLG was introduced. Not having the deleted text favored law enforcement. At a motion to dismiss hearing the judge did NOT allow for a dismissal, in fact the judge would have allowed the trial to move forward without the evidence to support the defendant’s argument. It was the prosecutor whom dismissed the case likely to not impact the reputation of the sergeant whom has been a star witness for most of these cases. The transcript from this case reveals in depth questioning about the violation of the Privacy Act (RCW 9.73.030(1)) and complete disregard to the RCW (RCW 13.60.110(4)) in soliciting funding. This is the GOLDEN GOOSE of all Operation Net Nanny cases showing the extreme lengths that law enforcement will go to secure a conviction on anyone—even those with no prior criminal history. Perhaps the beginning of the end?
- 2020 Jun: Florida Court Reverses Decision. The APPEAL decision by Florida’s Second District reversed the lower courts verdict. He did establish an entrapment defense (motion to dismiss was denied though and not allowed use of entrapment defense). Conversations took place over four days with a lot of steering by law enforcement. One thing of note, the subject appeared reluctant. The appeal court actually reversed AND discharged the case. A lot of references to another similar case which helped establish precedence: Gennette.
- 2021 Sept: United States v. Perez-Rodriguez, No. 19-1538 (1st Cir. 2021). The First Circuit vacated Defendant’s conviction of attempted enticement of a minor for unlawful sexual activity, holding that the district court committed plain error in failing to give a jury instruction on the entrapment defense. This was a Federal Sting Operation – Perez lost in trial (without entrapment) and was sentenced to 151 months ~ 12.5 years.
- 2021 Nov: United States v. Lofstead. The United States District Court, District of Nevada decision made on 22-Nov-2021. The government did file a notice of appeal with the Nithn Circuit but withdrew the appeal. The motion was unopposed and granted. The order closing the case was filed 4-Jan-2022. This case is officially dismissed and Lofstead has been relieved of the charges. Arguments were made to suppress the evidence due to warrant (granted) and also to dismiss the case. Strong arguments and cases sited for 4th and 5th amendment violation. This is one of the BEST cases and wins I’ve seen on the STING cases. Everyone should try to make these arguments in their appeal, PRP or in pre conviction situations.
- 2022 Feb: Florida Appeal Court Reverses another Decision. Another important win in the State of Florida (4th District) in the Appeal court. There were 7 constitutional issues addressed here (6 issues raised on appeal).
- 2022 Mar: Charges Dismissed – Online Sex Sting. Out of Bakersfield, CA they didn’t have sufficient evidence to tie the cell phone to the man they arrested (humm). “The cellphone believed used to send the messages didn’t have the evidence necessary to tie them to Contreras.”
- 2022 Jun: Entrapment and ineffective assistance of counsel win the day — Illinois Supreme Court vacates conviction – Entrapment wins the day at appellate level and then again at Supreme level of the courts. A copy of the decision. Another view/review of the decision. This isn’t a full acquittal but a win to return back to the lower court to do it again or resolve through some plea negotiation or perhaps (but unlikely) dismissal.
These articles are based on a quick Google search on “sex sting acquittal” and “child sex sting dismissed.” I search about 5-6 pages deep. I suspect there are others, not every case is publicized (thank goodness). Most of these seem to have a good/reasonable defense (not going to door, conversation was aggressive by officers, outrageous conduct, etc.).