Feds arrest six in Vegas child predator sting

Jace Radke

Thursday, Oct. 24, 2002 | 11:02 a.m.

When Jamey Jahner logged on to an Internet chat site titled "I Love Older Men Three," he quickly found what he was looking for -- a 14-year-old girl from Las Vegas named Erica.

For more than two months Jahner instigated sexually charged conversations anonymously from a Pensacola, Fla., computer -- more than 1,800 miles from Las Vegas. Eventually he sent pornographic photos and videos and arranged to meet Erica at a Las Vegas hotel, where he intended to have sex with her.

Erica, though, doesn't exist.

All of the pictures and conversations sent across the Internet ended up in a small office on Charleston Boulevard, where FBI agents pose as children to intercept a new breed of sexual predator.

"We give them the opportunity," FBI Special Agent Devon Mahoney said. "I think that there is a feeling on their end that they are free to do what they want because they are anonymous, but that anonymity also works for us."

Jahner is one of six men arrested in Las Vegas this year as part of an undercover sting operation conducted by the FBI and the U.S. attorney's office.

The 18-month operation marks the first time that local FBI agents have used the Internet to track down sexual predators who use the Internet to send pornographic material and recruit children for sexual relationships.

Nationally, such operations date from the mid-1990s, but agents are still finding no shortage of people looking to take advantage of children, Assistant U.S. Attorney Nancy Davis said.

"These are people that are going to travel to have sex with children," Davis said. "There have always been a lot of these people out there, it's just that the Internet is facilitating a new way for them to find their victims.

"The Internet emboldens them. These are probably people that may have sat and watched kids at a school, and have found the Internet to be an easier way to connect with children."

Nationally, online child pornography and sex exploitation cases have exploded in recent years. The number of FBI cases jumped from 113 in 1996 to 1,559 in 2001. Locally, the U.S. attorney's office has opened 29 cases over that period, including five in 2001 and 10 this year.

The sting operation has resulted in four men being arrested and charged with traveling to Las Vegas with the intent to have sex with a minor. Two local men have also been arrested during the course of the operation and charged with using the Internet to entice and lure a minor into having sex.

It doesn't take long to realize how many predators may be out there once an agent logs on under the assumed identity of a child, Mahoney said.

"As soon as we go into a chat room and they see a profile of a juvenile we get a ton of hits," Mahoney said.

U.S. District Judge Kent Dawson gave his perspective on the scope of sexual predators on the Internet as he sentenced Jahner to 37 months in prison earlier this month.

"During the trial as the (FBI) agent described this chat room, and the hits that they got, it reminded me of a swarm of flies or piranha waiting for a piece of meat," Dawson said to Jahner. "You are one of those out there ready to devour a minor."

Jahner, 45, was found guilty of interstate travel with intent to have sex with a minor and enticement of a minor using the Internet on June 20, but his contact with Mahoney posing as Erica dates back to late 2001.

During Jahner's trial it was revealed that he had nearly four months of Internet conversations with the undercover agent. The contact online also included Jahner sending pornographic photos of himself and others.

When Jahner requested a picture of Erica, Mahoney sent him photos of a female law enforcement officer at age 14. Later when Jahner initiated phone conversations, a female FBI agent took the calls.

Finally Jahner made plans to travel to Las Vegas where he set up a meeting at a hotel-casino. When Jahner arrived at the casino he was arrested by the FBI.

"We give them all the opportunities to back out, but they don't," Mahoney said. "It seems to be a need-based crime. It seems like it just overrides their brains."

The fact that agents are playing the role of a girl from Las Vegas may add to the suspects' feeling that it is all right to make the trip, Mahoney said.

"People want to come to Las Vegas, and I guess it would be pretty easy to make up a cover that you were coming out here for a convention," Mahoney said. "There's also a feeling that anything goes in Las Vegas. People know that prostitution is legal in some areas (of the state)."

Suspects from Florida, California and Washington, D.C., have already been charged in the sting operation. Jahner is the only one arrested in connection with the operation who has been adjudicated.

"Over the last six months we've been pretty busy making arrests," Mahoney said. "It takes some time to get a feel for working in this environment, and to know how to conduct yourself online."

Agents take classes in how to run the sting, and learn how to chat like a teenager might. Using hearts, smiling faces and other Internet icons that are popular with teens is part of the training.

The agents must also tread carefully throughout the operation, officials said. For example, in order for charges to stick agents must allow the suspect to be the aggressor and the initiator so that entrapment does not come into play.

In Jahner's case, Assistant Federal Public Defender Arthur Allen relied on a defense strategy of entrapment, pointing out instances where "Erica" would tell Jahner she loved him to pull the defendant further into what Allen described as a trap.

Daniel Dodson, a spokesman with the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, said his organization feels that legal standards involving entrapment have swung toward the prosecution over the years.

"Anytime the government takes action that helps a person commit a crime it's fundamentally unfair," Dodson said.

Mahoney and U.S. Attorney Dan Bogden argue that the operation is only providing an opportunity for the suspects, and that is within the law.

"Entrapment is going to be an issue in all of these cases, but these are defendants that are predisposed to committing these crimes," Bogden said. "This is an instance where we can stop someone before they have sex with a child. It's an opportunity to stop irreparable harm to a child."

The effects of sexual abuse on a child can last a lifetime, said Vicki Graff, executive director of Family and Child Treatment of Southern Nevada, a counseling service that specializes in the treatment of children who have been sexual abused.

"Anytime an adult has sex with a child there will be trauma because they are not on equal levels emotionally," Graff said. "It can hamper a child's ability to engage in future relationships and trust people.

"We have adults that come see us about situations that happened to them as children, so it can stay with you for life."

People convicted of traveling with the intent to have sex with a minor are considered sex offenders and have to register as such with authorities. Those convicted can face between 46 and 57 months in prison, but that range can increase or decrease based on criminal history or other factors.

"Getting a conviction in these cases brings me a lot of satisfaction, because we are protecting children," Davis said. "We don't know who else these people may be talking to.

"Every time we can get one talking to the FBI instead of a child it's a victory."

archive