By JARREL WADE World Staff Writer
Published: 12/21/2009
It starts out slowly. A man sends messages to someone whom he knows is too young — legally and morally — for a sexual relationship.
Through any number of discreet communication devices, he asks a 14-year-old girl how she is doing.
That's how it begins. Within a month of exchanging daily messages, he's asked her about her bedtime, talked about sex, sent images of his genitals to her and persuaded her to meet him for sex.
But in this case, it was caught early. The "14-year-old girl" was actually a Tulsa police officer since just after the predator's first contact with the real teenager, Detective Scott Wanzer said.
Derekco Eugene Sells, 31, was arrested Dec. 11 in the sting operation. Police allege that he took the girl's cell phone at a school football practice long enough to get her phone number and then began texting her.
Her parents are thankful that she told them about the messages early and that they knew what to do.
The girl's mother said she had set up several professional development courses for teachers on the subject after she heard Wanzer speak at a PTA meeting about sexual predators.
If she hadn't heard his speech, she said, she might not have recognized the signs of a sexual predator and called police.
"Predators pretty much become friends in kind of a grooming period," she said. "They slowly work into the child's life."
How to catch a predator
After the case was reported, the Tulsa Police Department's Cyber Crimes Unit, including Wanzer, went to work.
The unit took the girl's cell phone and waited for more messages to arrive.
Entrapment — a legal defense that sometimes gets charges dismissed — is hardly ever an issue in these cases, Wanzer said.
"Entrapment is when we bring up topics," he said. "They (predators) just incrementally bring up topics."
Before long, messages from the man started coming, and police were sending messages right back — in the persona of the teenager.
"When we are in an undercover personality of typically a 12- to 13-year-old we just play dumb or stupid, and it's not long before the predator begins to trust," Wanzer said. "It's kind of awkward at times."
The unit's personnel have to keep up on "teen lingo" and just "be smart about it," Wanzer said. "It's very inconvenient. I've got my paperwork, my family and kids — but every day my 'boyfriend' wants to talk to me."
One convenience, he said, is that children should be in school during the day and unable to send text messages. Wanzer uses that time to do his other work, he said.
A predator will sometimes take months to get to know an underage person, all the while moving toward a sexual relationship with the child, Wanzer said.
Investigations can take just a couple of weeks, as in Sells' case, or they can span months. Police have to keep up with the messages as a relationship develops between the predator and the police officer.
Parents should be parents
Wanzer's unit arrests about one predator a month in sting operations and lengthy undercover investigations.
"It's not in Chicago or Dallas or New York," he said. "It's right here in Tulsa."
The girl's mother said parents have to be able to monitor their children's lives on some level and should act as parents rather than as friends.
"We didn't have kids to have friends," she said. "Every once in a while, pick up your kid's phone."
Wanzer said parents need to make sure that they understand the advances in technology their children are using.
"If they are intimidated by that technology," he said, "they need to get over that intimidation."
Jarrel Wade 581-8367
jarrel.wade@tulsaworld.com
Copyright Tulsa World 2009. Format differs from original publication.
Recent Comments