A local judge threw out a case against an accused Internet stalker December 15 – because his alleged intended victim was not under 16 years old, as required by Nevada law – with potential ramifications for law enforcement efforts to stop online predators.
KESQ-TV in Palm Springs, California reported Washoe County District Judge James Hardesty ruled the prosecution didn’t prove there was a “reasonable belief” that former casino dealer Jeffrey Thurber would actually commit sexual assault against a teenage girl.
Thurber faced charges for allegedly trying to meet what he thought was a 14-year-old girl in an Internet chat room, who turned out to be a sheriff’s department Internet Crimes Unit detective.
Deputy Washoe County District Attorney James Shewan told the Reno Gazette-Journal that his office might appeal the Hardesty ruling to the Nevada Supreme Court – a court Hardesty himself will join in January.
Shewan told the newspaper Hardesty’s ruling could affect up to four cases he himself is prosecuting as well as 25 people convicted and sentenced on charges similar to those Thurber faced. He said the Hardesty ruling could stop this kind of online sting in the future.
“Depending on what happens with this ruling, we would be doing no more undercover operations unless we had a 15-year-old doing the computer work,” Shewan told the Gazette-Journal after the hearing. “If that’s the way they find it, we are out of business.”
Thurber’s attorney, Martin Wiener, agreed. “I think this is pretty clear,” he told the paper. “The Legislature’s rules prohibit sting operations with impostors pretending to be children.”
Hardesty also ruled that Nevada law says there must be “reasonable belief” that such a suspect would actually commit sexual assault against the child in question.
