ARLINGTON — An Arlington man was arrested after he allegedly tried to meet up with two underage teen girls on Facebook.
Both times he was talking with the same Bothell undercover detective, according to police reports.
The suspect, 29, was booked into the Snohomish County Jail for investigation of third-degree attempted rape of a child and communication with a minor for immoral purposes. The detective, who is a man, noted he also assisted in arresting the same man earlier in the year on April 27, when he allegedly tried to sell a “sizeable amount” of methamphetamine to yet another social media profile controlled by Bothell police.
The man is a registered sex offender with previous rape convictions. He’s accused of sending the first message on Oct. 24.
“Sorry I added you thought your gorgeous,” he wrote, according to court papers that included transcripts of the conversations.
A couple days later, he asked if the fictitious girl was single. “She” said she was.
“Well you want a boyfriend,” he reportedly wrote.
“Idk you might be to old for me,” the detective responded. “I’m a mature 15 tho.”
It wasn’t long before the suspect reportedly tried to get the girl to meet at a motel. On Nov. 12, the detective asked what they would do. The suspect said he couldn’t say on Facebook.
Then on Nov. 30, he did say on Facebook, according to transcripts. He said it starts with an “s.”
“What is this jeopardy lol,” the detective wrote.
The suspect then allegedly spelled it out one letter at a time, in three different messages:
“S,” “E,” “X.”
“You want sex from me?” the detective wrote.
“Ya,” the suspect wrote, according to transcripts. He changed the chat theme to a tie dye design.
They agreed to meet at Woods Coffee in Bothell the morning of Dec. 2, after the fake girl’s fake mother left for work. That day, the suspect asked to talk on the phone, and another Bothell officer called through Facebook messenger.
At the time they were supposed to meet, and as police waited nearby, the suspect stopped responding to messages asking where he was.
He eventually sent a message.
“Lol I’m not stupid there’s a cop behind safeway,” he wrote.
“Huh,” the detective replied.
“Ya that was a set up,” the suspect wrote.
“Ur a crazy person,” the detective wrote.
“No im not I just (know) that its illegal for police to make accounts on Facebook and trick people into meeting them,” the suspect wrote.
“Are you on drugs or something,” the detective wrote.
Officers looked for the man but couldn’t find him. One officer said he possibly saw him driving a silver Volkswagen Passat away from the coffee shop while they were still waiting for him to arrive.
Just 14 minutes after he sent his last message, the suspect wrote to another fake profile, depicting another teenage girl, controlled by the same detective.
“Hey,” he wrote.
“Sup,” the detective wrote back.
Again, the suspect tried to set up a meeting. The detective, posing as the girl, wrote he was at Country Inn & Suites on North Creek Parkway.
That afternoon, the suspect sent messages to the girl asking if she was still awake and saying he was on his way. He asked what room she was in, according to court papers.
A Bothell officer went to the motel to search for the suspect, but soon the detective received another message.
“I’ve gotta head north (to beat) the traffic,” the suspect wrote.
The next day, Dec. 3, Bothell police and detectives with the Snohomish County Violent Offender Task arrested the man at a home in Marysville. An Everett District Court judge set his bail at $100,000. He remained in custody on Friday.
Zachariah Bryan: 425-339-3431; zbryan@heraldnet.com. Twitter: @zachariahtb.
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