Hollister
– Local police officers served a search warrant on a Hollister
man’s home Monday after he was arrested during a Long Beach
undercover sting operation to identify sexual predators.
Hollister – Local police officers served a search warrant on a Hollister man’s home Monday after he was arrested during a Long Beach undercover sting operation to identify sexual predators.
Frank Sierras, 48, was arrested by Long Beach Police officers on Sunday along with 37 other men for crimes against children. The Long Beach police were assisted by a citizen’s advocacy group in the sting operation, which was filmed for NBC’s “Dateline” TV program, said police spokesman Sgt. David Cannan. Volunteers from the advocacy group, Perverted-Justice.com, posed on the Internet as underage boys and girls to lure potential sexual predators to a Long Beach home. When suspects arrived at the home, they were arrested by Long Beach police.
Sierras drove to the Long Beach home expecting to meet a young girl between the age of 11 and 14 whom he had chatted with online, Cannan said. When Sierras arrived at the home to meet the girl, he was arrested on suspicion of an attempted lewd act on a child, a felony, Cannan said. Sierras made the five-hour, 330-mile drive from Hollister to Long Beach in a rental car, Cannan said. Sierras even got a speeding ticket from the California Highway Patrol on the drive to the sting house, according to police.
Sierras has a history of trying to meet young girls via the Internet, according to police.
In 2004, Perverted-Justice.com, a volunteer organization that surfs the Web to expose possible pedophiles, posted a conversation from a Yahoo chatroom of a person they believe was Sierras communicating sexually explicit comments and sending lewd photos of himself to a volunteer posing as a 13-year-old girl, Perverted-Justice.com Director of Operations Xavier Von Erck said in a e-mail to the Free Lance on Wednesday.
The chat occurred in May of 2004 and was later posted on the group’s Web site.
Shortly thereafter, Sierras hired Oakland-based attorney Dennis Roberts. At the time, Roberts said his client was innocent and planned to sue Perverted-Justice.com.
Von Erck said that at the time of the organization’s first chat with Sierras it was difficult to make arrests.
“Obviously, we’ve been busy since then, building cases and arrests and credibility, so now Sierras hit upon us again and met proactive police. We’re very glad that Sierras was finally arrested, though we obviously believe that with proactive police, he would have been investigated and arrested over two years ago,” Von Erck said via e-mail Wednesday. “This case is a good illustration of how much work we’ve put into building a network of proactive police who understand that our evidence is more than worthy.”
Sierra was never arrested or charged with a crime after his first alleged conversation with Perverted-Justice.com, according to Von Erck.
San Benito County District Attorney John Sarsfield said Sierras does not have a criminal record in San Benito County.
The “Dateline” program, “To Catch a Predator,” is scheduled to air in October.
Hollister police served a search warrant on Sierras’ home, at 1142 Crescent Lane, on Monday, but declined to provide information on what evidence was seized from the home.
Sierras was booked into the Long Beach City Jail Sunday, where he remains in custody in lieu of $100,000 bail, Cannan said.
Brett Rowland covers public safety for the Free Lance. He can be reached at 831-637-5566 ext. 332 or
br******@fr***********.com
.
