You may be stunned and angry after being charged with a child sex crime. Your mind may also be working overtime, trying to pinpoint when this may have happened—but you come up blank.
As a police officer begins questioning you, you remember something—but you never acted on the invitation, feeling it could be dangerous.
What is solicitation of a minor?
This means responding to a teen girl on websites like Craigslist. Even though you were not interested, the girl continued, trying to get you to meet with her for sex.
During the interview, the police officer may produce photos and you stop at one of the photos. You say that you spoke with her. As the interview goes on, you may realize that the officer tried to entrap you. This is when you may refuse to say anything more.
Isn’t solicitation of a minor entrapment?
In Florida, trapping a possible sex crime suspect is not allowed. The “girl” you may have been speaking to was not a teenage girl. Instead, this was a police officer, who pretended to be a minor girl.
You haven’t told the interviewing officer that when the “girl” admitted she was 14 years old, you lost interest and blocked her on your accounts. Learning more about entrapment may help you to avoid being wrongfully convicted of a child sex crime.
Entrapment of a law-abiding person to commit a crime may be illegal
Inducing someone who would otherwise not commit a specific crime is entrapment.
Entrapment is illegal. Going a step further, your arrest may have been for a vague reason, such as “obscene” conduct. In your online communications with the undercover police officer, you may have flirted playfully. This in itself is not illegal. The officer may have been trying to get you to agree to meet for sex.