Internet predator law loophole gone

CARSON CITY -- The Senate Judiciary Committee quickly backed a bill Thursday that would eliminate a loophole that prevents police from making cases against predators who use the Internet to lure children into having sex.

Members gave unanimous support to Assembly Bill 72, a proposed by Assemblywoman Heidi Gansert, R-Reno, that was unanimously approved in the Assembly on April 16.

Gansert and Attorney General Catherine Cortez Masto testified the bill was prompted by a Sept. 14 state Supreme Court decision that threw out charges against Anthony Colosimo, a 21-year-old Reno man who corresponded over the Internet with a person he believed was a 14-year-old girl.

Instead of a girl named Sammi, the person Colosimo ultimately met at a prearranged destination following their Internet chats was a 41-year-old female detective.

He arrived with condoms and lubricant and was arrested and charged with violating a state law that makes it illegal to use Internet technology to lure children under age 16 away from their parents.

But the court ruled that the intended victim actually had to be younger than 16 under the state law.

Under the bill, the age of the person with whom a suspected predator chats over the Internet would not matter. As long as the would-be predator believes his intended victim is under 16, the accused would face criminal charges as a sexual predator.

Conviction of the offense would bring a one- to six-year prison term and $10,000 fine.

"It makes it so the charges stick if the predator believes it is a chat with a child, regardless of whether it is a child," Cortez Masto said of AB72.

She said police investigators typically enter Internet chat rooms and pose as 13 to 15-year-old girls or boys, according to the attorney general.

They then begin to respond to messages by other chat room participants. Sometimes the chats lead to face-to-face meetings in which adults seek to have sex with a person they believe is a child. The predator then is arrested.

Police generally do not want to use underage child to lure the predators because of the possible danger they could face.

Under the law, charges would be filed only if the predators are at least five years older than the intended victims.

Under the state's sexual seduction law, it is a gross misdemeanor for an 18- to 21-year-old to have sex with someone under age 16.

David Clifton, a Washoe County district attorney, said college students often date high school students, and high school students date junior high students. He said they do not want to charge someone as a sexual predator in those situations.

Gansert, who has teenage children, said she is appalled by the number of predatory sexual encounters on the Internet. One in seven children receives sexual requests, she said.

"It has become so blatant," Gansert said. "There has been no shortage of people trying to lure our youth."

Numerous police officials and prosecutors testified Thursday for AB72. The Nevada District Attorney's Association offered a minor amendment, which Gansert called a "friendly amendment." The committee then backed the amendment and the entire bill.