MENLO PARK — Three men were charged this week with meeting with a minor with the intent of engaging in lewd and lascivious behavior after an undercover police officer posed as a 13-year-old girl on online dating websites, prosecutors said.
The operation was aimed at combatting child exploitation, according to the San Mateo County District Attorney’s Office. All three men allegedly arrived at a location where they believed they would be meeting the fake 13-year-old girl.
“It is never ceases to amaze me … how many predators there are out there who are more than willing to reach out, develop contact with juvenile girls — juvenile boys too — and to try and set up a time to get together to engage in illegal sexual conduct,” said San Mateo County District Attorney Stephen Wagstaffe. “What Menlo Park has chosen to do is to, by using an undercover (officer), … basically, it’s almost like throwing a hook in the water to see: Does anything catch on?”
Yony Sifredo Trochez Martinez, a 33-year-old resident of San Jose, and Jefferson Aldair Martinez Hernadez, a 26-year-old resident of San Leandro, were each charged with three counts of communicating with a minor with the intent of committing lewd and lascivious behavior, one count of meeting with a minor for the purposes of lewd and lascivious behavior and one count of distribution of harmful material to children with the intent of sexual intercourse, prosecutors said.
Arunkumar Kizhakkedath Unnikrishnan, a 45-year-old resident of Mountain View, was charged with two counts of communicating with a minor with the intent of committing lewd and lascivious behavior and one count of meeting with a child for the purposes of lewd or lascivious behavior, prosecutors added.
All three defendants pleaded not guilty to the charges.
On Sept. 24, a Menlo Park Police Department officer represented himself as a 13-year-old girl on WhatsApp and dating website Badoo, prosecutors said. Three men independently reached out to the undercover officer, and spoke to the fake girl despite being explicitly told she was 13.
The three men texted with the girl to set up a meeting for sex, prosecutors said. They also sent graphic photos and videos and discussed “the sex they would engage in.”
The officers arranged for meetings with the fake 13-year-old girl on Gilbert Street in Menlo Park, prosecutors added. When each of the men showed up at their separate meeting times, they were arrested.
Wagstaffe added the that charges were chosen specifically in anticipation of certain defenses the defendants may use.
“The defense that all three of them said was, ‘Well, I know she said she was 13, but I thought she was much older,’ — you know, silly stuff like that,” Wagstaffe said.
Bail for each defendant was set at $10,000, prosecutors said.
“Menlo Park got three people who were willing to reach out to a 13 year old — what they thought was a 13 year old,” Wagstaffe added. “We now have three people who we will attempt to convict of these crimes and try and hold them accountable.”