Watch the full Dr. Phil Episode: “My Son Was Caught in a Sex Sting”
In case you missed it, you can watch the full episode that aired this past Monday here:
UPDATED LINKS:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WwZ4r9cAFdc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4WQB7XmVu-g
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RN0EF88wdKk
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Entrapment certainly can be real, and sometimes vindictive. In 2018 a 65 year old man introduced himself to a 16 year old young woman who was waiting in the lobby of a local hotel for her mother to get off work. He seemed to be hitting on her, but the conversation was never explicitly sexual. He invited both of them to lunch one day and left the young woman with his phone number. He had no way to contact her again.
Not surprisingly, the mother was upset when she heard the story. Note that nothing unlawful had occurred at this point. The age of consent is 16, so even if he had propositioned her, there would have been no legal foul.
Unfortunately the mother just happened to be an Assistant U.S. Attorney, a federal prosecutor. Oops. Rather than calling the guy to warn him off as any enraged parent might have done, she went upstairs to the Office of the (state) Attorney General with which she had professional relations. She asked them to set up a sting, where the investigator would pretend to be the daughter old who would eventually claim she had lied and was really only 15. Of course it was the investigator who instigated sexual conversations in the text exchanges.
They agreed to meet during the day at a convenience store. When he arrived, he was arrested for online solicitation of a minor.
Long story short, the state district judge agreed with the defense that this was clearly a case of entrapment, and dismissed the case with prejudice. Chalk one up for the rule of law! The state appealed and the case is still languishing at the appellate court one year later.
Note, the defendant was immediately released but is still being kept in a state of uncertainty and, most likely, anxiety. This after having spent 11 months in pretrial confinement. He didn’t violate the law but was deprived of reputation as well as liberty for nearly a year.
This story just illustrates the lengths to which police and prosecutors will go in order to catch or create a “predator.”
Veritas.
Dear Ed C, you wrote: “The age of consent is 16, so even if he had propositioned her, there would have been no legal foul.” What state and jurisdiction was this case? The age of consent in Florida is 18. See https://www.morrisfirmpensacola.com/age-of-consent-in-florida/#:~:text=In%20Florida%2C%20the%20age%20of,older%20than%2023%20years%20old.
The case I referred to is New Mexico v. Richard Keller, D-202-CR-201803851 (2018)
Below is a quote from New Mexico v. Lisa Stevens, NMSC Docket No. 32,860 @{27} (2014)
“See, e.g., 1963 N.M. Laws, ch. 303,§ 9 (enacting a new criminal code and providing punishments for sexual intercourse with children under the age of sixteen years…)”
Interestingly in Stevens, the NM Supreme Court mentioned that in the state’s territorial days, a person did not commit a crime if there was consent and the child was 10 years old or older. Reading that literally made my jaw drop. The wild west indeed!! Since statehood, New Mexico has become somewhat more civilized.
The last I looked, the age of consent is 16 in 34 states and under federal law. Don’t quote me on the exact number of states, but I’m certain about federal law. That creates an odd situation where a person can have sexual relations with a 16 year old, but can’t take her picture. Under federal law it is production of child pornography if the subject was under 18, and federal jurisdiction can apply if the camera was not manufactured in the state (no kidding).
These federal laws apply to foreign travel as well. A U.S. citizen in a foreign country is not criminally liable under U.S. law for sex with someone 16 or older; unless that person is a prostitute wherein the age is 18 (also true stateside). Federal child pornography production laws still apply. Because the government claims “extraterritorial jurisdiction” over its citizens, one must abide by laws of both the U.S. and the host country.
Given the interplay between federal and the various state laws, the subject of criminal sexual conduct is a bowl of spaghetti.
Veritas.
I noticed the “police” part of the video, it was deleted by Dr. Phil show. But the whole point is to raise awareness, that speaking to a human under the age of consent, for a sexual content, is unlawful.
But if you edit out the contents where the cop gets to give his line, then what is the whole point? Just useless noise.
They deleted it because they didn’t want a debate or anything else. They just want their line to be heard, nothing about entrapment, nothing about why they went to an adult website to do this, instead of making a new site, like underagekids.com (please don’t click, I just made it up) and get the people who go to that site. I think this trick, is evil.
It’s appalling that anyone would be on a registry and probation for life for having no contact with anyone underage. It’s also incredible that lonely young men are sent to jail for this. There has to be a better way to educate them than stings and incarceration and basically ruining their lives. Lots of money involved and that can be a major problem in getting any changes made.
thank you bea – i appreciate the sympathy. I am doing everything I can think of to get this into the publics awareness.
The stuff that young people are going to prison for and having their lives ruined for have been going on forever. The only difference is the technology. Violent, forceful acts should be the only reason to consider in deciding to destroy a life. People have been ‘he’ing and she’ing’ throughout history. That’s how humans are ‘wired’.
I went to the site to see the show and got a message that it had been removed due to a breach in content agreement. I really wanted to watch it.
Try going to Dr. Phil’s website. That is where I watched it.
Hi Charles – we have copies – we will be putting them up on both CAGE and LadyJusticeMyth.Blog
I’ll be watching for it. Thanks.
The gestapo took the video down. They do these things because they want the public to see it and to stop chatting with children. But they took this down because it shows that they break the “rules” of social media sites by saying they are over the age of 18, then entrapping people by saying they are not later. The judges don’t seem to mind cops lies about age to get their “lonely messages” posted to ADULT websites, but then expect them not to be lairs in court. https://drphil.to/dr-phil-full-episode-my-son-was-caught-in-a-sex-sting/ or parts one through three https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WwZ4r9cAFdc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4WQB7XmVu-g https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RN0EF88wdKk
If you would like to speak with the cop in the show, Brandon A. Pursell Jr. (telephone number 559-600-8029)
Sheriff’S Lieutenant (2019)
Regular pay: $127,442.44
Overtime pay: $16,890.19
Other pay: $13,759.93
Total pay: $158,092.56
Benefits: $108,988.51
Total pay & benefits: $267,081.07
(in the video, he said he doesn’t get a reward of any kind for posing as a child to entrap people, what about 13,759? What is that from, not from being a school crossing guard. 13K is a hell of a reward.
Can you tell me where you got his financial info please? I would love to write Mr Purcell an email.
In the minds of these guys, they “thought” the girl was of age (by a pic or intelligence) but were told otherwise very specifically. Yet, they all continued with a meeting. I’m sorry but these guys are guilty.
On the other hand, yes, police go after these guys knowing they do not know the circumstances of their actions and vulnerable.
This is why I say ongoing education during early and late childhood on sex, the laws, and the penalties is key to curbing all of this. It should be mandatory education for all starting at a young age (even as young as 5).
But guilty of what exactly? There is no underage person. The laws of entrapment say that it is entrapment if the person is in a place where they normally would not expect that crime to happen, such as, prostitution if the undercover person approaches the suspect in a doctors office. To me the same thing would apply here if they’re on a site where you have to say you’re 18 or older to use it One would not expect an underage person to be there. There is no victim! If this type of thing is such a horrible problem then why not rescue the true victims instead of creating victims? No this is a big moneymaker for these police departments — end of that story