Arizona SCT on Online Undercover Investigations
Here’s a decision that is guaranteed to be misinterpreted by the public. From the Arizona Daily Star:
Court limits TV-sex-sting charges
Reporters pretending to be teens on the Internet to lure adults may be great television. But the Arizona Supreme Court ruled Wednesday it isn’t enough to get their targets arrested.In a unanimous decision, the justices concluded people lured to meet with what they think are teen girls can’t be charged if it turns out the person doing the luring is not a minor, but in fact a TV reporter — or any other adult, for that matter. The court concluded charging someone with seeking out a minor for sexual purposes, by definition, requires an actual minor.
The only exception, they said, is if the person doing the luring is a police officer.
But if you read the opinion, there’s a big catch: the Court’s ruling is that such cases have to be charged as an attempted luring of a minor, rather than the substantive offense. So yes, media undercover investigations that persuade adults to try to lure what they think are kids online actually will get the adults arrested and charged — just for the attempt rather than the substantive offense.
Unless the adult is unusually short, of course. Thanks to Frank Salamone for the link.
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