NY- Unemployed Security Guard Caught In Sex Sting

5-9-2008 New York:

QUEENS—A 27-year-old unemployed security guard has been charged with attempting to meet for sexual relations a person he had met online and whom he believed to be a 14-year-old girl. The alleged victim was actually a New York City Police Department undercover detective assigned to its Vice Enforcement Division.

Emmanuel Maldonado, 27, of 92 Calyer Street in Brooklyn, was arraigned last week in Queens Criminal Court on charges of second-degree attempted rape, second-degree attempted criminal sexual act, first-degree attempted dissemination of indecent material to minors and attempted endangering the welfare of a child. Maldonado, who faces up to four years in prison if convicted, was ordered held on $10,000 bail and his next court date is Monday, May 19.

According to the charges, a NYPD vice detective was operating in his undercover persona as a 14-year-old girl from Queens and visiting a public chat room on the Internet on the evening of April 15, when he began receiving instant messages from the defendant, who was using the screen name “manny556955.”

During their conversations, the defendant allegedly inquired about the undercover’s age and where she lived and with whom. Once the detective confirmed he was a 14-year-old girl who lived with her grandmother, the defendant allegedly responded that he was 27 years old and began asking intimate questions about her physique and what she liked to do sexually, as well as when she might be alone in the house. Shortly before ending their conversation for the evening, Maldonado allegedly asked, “U not a cop or something?”

It is additionally alleged that the undercover detective and the defendant had several more Internet conversations between April 16 and May 1 during which Maldonado gave the undercover his cell phone number and continually tried to persuade the undercover to drop her insistence that he wear a condom when they met and had sex.

A youthful-looking female undercover officer who adopted the detective undercover persona of a 14-year-old girl allegedly received several cell phone calls from “Manny,” – including one on April 24. On May 1, the defendant allegedly contacted the undercover through the Internet and stated that they should meet the following day at the Fresh Meadows movie theater at 190-02 Horace Harding Boulevard.

On May 2, 2008, the undercover detective and other members of his team

were in the vicinity of the movie theater with the female undercover officer who had previously spoken by phone to the defendant. At approximately 5:40 p.m., Maldonado allegedly arrived in a black Nissan Maxima and approached the female undercover. The two then proceeded to a nearby Boston Market restaurant at 61-45 188th Street.

During their meal, the defendant allegedly told the undercover he didn’twant to go to the movies but to her home. The undercover said that if they were going to do what the defendant had talked about online, then he would have to get some condoms.Maldonado allegedly agreed and as they walked back to his vehicle and he opened the passenger door for the undercover, he was taken into custody. ..News Source.. by North Country Gazette