“BE TRUE TO YOUR WORK AND YOUR WORK WILL BE TRUE TO you.” Those are the words inscribed on the seal of New York’s famous and praiseworthy Pratt Institute. The school has a history that spans back in time to well over a century ago, which has left the campus adorned with many architectural landmarks. Distinguished faculty members take pride in what they have to offer their students. One such individual, Steven Dovas, whose expertise is in the area of animation, spent many hours in his office doing what most assumed was “being true to his work.” However, that was not always the case. When Steven slipped into his office and closed the door behind him, sometimes work was his priority. Often he focused on his own needs, needs that had nothing to do with furthering his career or the needs and reputation of his employer.
Sitting at his desk, Steven booted up his computer hoping to find someone to his liking. He was looking for female companionship, someone who would fulfill his every desire. He must have believed that the Internet would be the place where those dreams could come true. So, he logged onto America Online in his quest to find that one special girl. One day, as Steven perused the chatrooms, scouring the profiles of those whose AOL screen names interested him, he came across one that immediately caught his attention. It was anything but subtle. It revealed the person’s name, her age, her location, her likes and dislikes, as well as a full description of her: long blonde hair, blue eyes, 5’2”. She was online; he could not resist. He instant messaged Julie hoping for a reply. To his delight, she responded and they chatted for quite awhile, revealing just enough details to hold each other’s interest. He seemed excited about his new acquaintance and her eagerness to chat with him. And, she was just as excited about hers. It was obvious to Julie that Steven wanted to be more than friends.
As the days passed, Steven thought of Julie. He often booted up his computer and looked for her. As soon as he saw her name appear on his buddy list, he would instant message her right away. She always responded. At first, they talked mainly about Julie’s interests and her family. He seemed more cautious than she was about revealing too much about himself. They traded pictures and exchanged some minor personal details about themselves.
As their chats became more regular, Steven began to open up and discussed subjects of a more intimate nature. He told Julie how much he had missed her since their last chat and how he was hoping to someday meet her. She liked hearing that. When he saw that she was flattered by his comments, and also interested in meeting him, the intimacy soon turned into sex talk. He asked her about past affairs. She hesitantly shared that she had never been with anyone. Steven expressed admiration for her, commending her for saving herself for that special someone. And, as time passed, he carefully described all of the things he wanted to show her someday. Julie responded that she was anxious to learn from him. He knew that their relationship had moved to the next level.
As the dialogue continued, Steven increasingly monopolized the chats with talk about sex. He appeared to be fixated on it, and the more responsive Julie was, the more descriptive he got. It wasn’t long before their communications were mostly about sex.
When Steven felt that he had gained Julie’s complete trust, he asked her if she would call him. She agreed. He gave her his office phone number and anxiously waited for her call. He quickly answered, and when he heard Julie’s voice, he became excited. He talked casually at first, asking how she was and telling her how nice it was to finally talk to her. She was shy. It was easier for her to chat on the computer. She didn’t really have any experience with the opposite sex. She tried her best not to let on to him how nervous she was. Eventually, she grew more comfortable and they had several phone conversations. There were times when Steven’s voice grew low and the conversation would turn to sex. He would go into detail about all of the things that he wanted to do to her. Then, there were long periods of silence from him, followed by more details. During those times, Julie barely had a chance to respond. Steven’s breathing would become heavy as he commented about how much he liked her voice and how excited he felt listening to her. He would often ask her to say certain seductive things to him. She hesitantly agreed. He would tell her what to say and she would repeat it. But, Steven would often abruptly end the call, saying that he had to get back to work. Julie was surprised to be cut off so quickly. Several similar phone calls took place until Steven asked her out on a date. They agreed to meet at City Hall Park in Manhattan. It was then that the situation moved beyond the point of no return.
Steven and Julie’s story resembles that of a steamy romance novel—full of love and lust. But there is one crucial detail missing: two consenting adults. When Steven, using the AOL screen name RoyLpain, first made contact with Julie, he was a respected teacher, lecturer, and well-known filmmaker and commercial animator who had been praised for his work on various projects for children’s television segments for Nickelodeon, HBO, and Sesame Street. But today, he is best described as a convicted sex offender. Steven Dovas is a child predator, an adult who desires sex with children. He went after Julie thinking that she was thirteen years old. But, Julie is made up of two people: FBI Special Agent Austin Berglas, known on AOL as “Julie13nyc;” and me—a concerned citizen, who uses the AOL screen name “Teen2hot4u.”
In truth, the thirteen-year-old girl that Steven Dovas thought he was communicating with does not exist. She is one of a number of fictitious teenagers created for the purpose of weeding out Internet predators. The teen’s voice on the other end of Dovas’ phone conversations was mine. On the telephone, I usually portray Julie. Sometimes I speak to the predators as Lorie, also known as Teen2hot4u. I am not an FBI agent, nor am I a law enforcement officer. But, I am also not a thirteen-year-old girl. I am very good at what I do, which is why the FBI has allowed me into their circle of trust. On the Internet and on the telephone, I can convince anyone that I am a young teen. I know the lingo, and I can speak the part. So, while men like Steven Dovas occupy themselves trying to make young girls their victims, they had better be very careful that they don’t run into me first, because it will be their last stop before a prison cell.
When Steven Dovas showed up at City Hall Park to meet Julie, he was greeted instead by a squad of FBI agents, and arrested.
The government’s complaint against him stated that he had initiated over forty Internet chats and a number of telephone conversations with the girl he was trying to meet. All of those communications included graphic depictions of the sexual acts that he had planned to engage in with his young victim.
Steven Dovas’ story is not unlike that of most convicted sex offenders who search for children online. He first came across Julie in an Internet chatroom while on a quest to find young girls to meet for sex. She seemed like just the right type for him. She was the only child of a single mom, and she had no experience with boys. Due to her mother’s long working hours, she spent a lot of time alone at home on the Internet. His intention was to “groom” her, a maneuver that sexual predators use to gain a child’s trust and reduce their inhibitions with the ultimate goal of initiating physical contact. He used the chats, emails, and phone calls to build up Julie’s self-esteem and make her feel comfortable enough to talk to him about sex. He gently asked whether she had siblings, what her father was like, and whether her mother was home a lot. Was her mother strict? Did she give Julie a lot of freedom? He encouraged her to talk about school, what grade she was in, and where she lived. Her answers convinced Steven that he had found the perfect mark, because Julie had enough free time to sneak away and meet him without arousing her mother’s suspicions. He spent many long hours chatting with her about how much he liked her and all the fun they would have if they ever met. When he felt the time was right, he brought up the subject of sex, and praised her for not having been with a boy yet. He said that he wanted to be the one to teach her everything, and when he thought he had that chance, he took it. Predators like this almost always have numerous victims while on their mission to seduce children.
Upon his arrest, Dovas’ background with children’s programming led to newspaper headlines that ran the gamut from “‘Sesame’ Prof Hit in Perv Sting” to “Brought to Jail by the Letters S, E, and X.” He was charged with using the Internet to persuade, induce, entice, and coerce an individual younger than eighteen years old to engage in sexual activity. After pleading guilty, he was sentenced to five years in a federal prison; five years supervised release; a $10,000 fine; and attendance in a sex offender program. He was lucky. Based on the charges, he could have received thirty years.
Steven Dovas was a very prominent individual. He was married, successful, and well respected. A Google search yields pages of links to his many achievements. Yet, he succumbed to his desires and lost everything when he put his entire life on the line for a moment of sex with a child. Now he sits in a jail cell, and like most other incarcerated sexual predators, he probably wonders what he did that was so terribly wrong. After all, according to what many of them say, they are only giving the child the kind of love that they deserve. Unfortunately, these predators have the convoluted notion that if they do not force themselves on a child, the sex is consensual, and therefore, it should not be considered illegal. With over 550,000 sex offenders registered nationwide, you would think they would figure out that their opinion is not relevant. Their behavior is illegal and, if caught, they will go to jail. But they have an addiction, and these deviants stop at virtually nothing. And, I will stop at nothing to find them and turn them over to the FBI. The fact is that my odds are much better than theirs. While there is no doubt that the Internet has dramatically increased the access of child predators to their young prey, it has also increased the chances that law enforcement officials will catch them. Since the Internet is now one of the most commonly used methods by which sexual predators entice children into illicit sexual relationships, law enforcement agencies all over the country are forming squads for the sole purpose of catching them before they can victimize another child.
Unfortunately, most sexual predators have already left a trail of hurt and trauma behind them, so it is important that we do everything in our power to stop these criminals in their tracks. Just as sexual predators hide anonymously behind their computer screens, so do law enforcement agents, and so do I. Unfortunately for Steven Dovas, he sits among the throngs of sexual predators who have crossed my path while I continue to lie in wait for my next prey.
So, who am I? When it comes to catching sexual predators, I can best be described as two different people. Sometimes, I am Julie. Most of the time, I am Lorie. And, in my other life, the one that has nothing to do with deviant perverts, I am a wife, a mother, a grandmother, an attorney, a news producer, and an author. What I do on the Internet is the clandestine part of my life that stays hidden from most who know me. After all, it is not easy telling your friends that you spend most of your time searching for sexual predators. I also never know who might be within earshot. It could be a local Internet predator who might end up going offline to find victims after hearing about me. But, more importantly, up until now, I have shared my secret with only a few select people because what I do puts me in harm’s way. I never made it public knowledge before because someone might retaliate against me for having caught one of their loved ones, or friends, or them. But this story must be told, regardless of the consequences.
Not too long ago, I received several threats when one of my screen names was revealed in a newspaper article after an arrest was made. People were instant messaging and emailing me nasty comments and warnings. Some said they would hurt me for what I do; one individual told me that I would “never be able to get them all.” It is amazing that they do not realize how easy it is to find out who they are. I have no interest in those people yet. Their threats are as meaningless to me as the depraved individuals who hide behind their computer screens lurking around for children who cannot defend themselves. But, I do keep track of them. After each threat that I receive, I put their names on my buddy list, and it is not long before I recognize them as people who hang out in the same chatrooms that I frequent looking for sexual predators. They just haven’t approached me yet. But, they will. People forget quickly.
When I sign onto the Internet, I transform into a different person—a curious, naïve child. As Lorie, I play the part of a teenage girl who goes online looking for older men who are interested in teaching me about grown-up things. I sit in chatrooms and wait for them to find me. Yes, you read that correctly. I frequent their loathsome hangouts and wait for them to make their move. I have developed Internet screen names and profiles that clearly reflect that I am very young, and they come in droves to pursue me, one instant message after another.
A screen name is like a tag. I use those that identify me as a child. For example, my most famous screen name, the one most responsible for the capture and conviction of several sexual predators, is Teen2hot4u. It clearly shows that I am a teenager. How young I am can be seen in my profile that states that I am thirteen. Agent Berglas’ screen name was Julie13nyc. People familiar with the Internet chat world would easily recognize that to be Julie’s name, her age, and her location. As with Teen2hot4u, many people don’t use their real names in their screen name. Some use names that indicate a hobby, like Surfergrl or Tennisany1. While Lorie is not my screen name, it is one of the names that I use in my profile which is filled with all of the details that I think will attract child predators. All they have to do is click on my screen name, and my profile shows up on the screen. In it, I include my age and other information that makes me appear to be a young teen.
Using my screen names, I sign onto the Internet and go into chatrooms that most likely cater to sexual predators, otherwise known in the legal world as predicated chatrooms. Through experience, I have learned where to find them. They are easy to spot and are always filled with people who frequent the same types of rooms. These predators go from one chatroom to the next, checking out profiles to see who might be an easy mark.
Once I have myself situated in a room, it never takes more than a couple of minutes before I am bombarded with instant messages. I receive so many, in fact, that I have no choice but to weed some out. I do that by reading their profiles to see if I can spot people who live within traveling distance from Lorie. It is far more likely that a predator will look closer to home for a child rather than travel several hundred miles away. Some will travel, but it is less common. I look for indications of their age, because I don’t want to chat with children. I eliminate those who state they are only interested in trading pictures, chatting online or on the phone, and not meeting in person. Those are the ones who are usually only interested in fantasizing and/or role-playing, and not meeting in real time, meaning outside of the Internet. I also avoid most people who do not have a profile, unless their screen name clearly indicates that they are from somewhere close enough for a meeting. For example, a screen name such as ChicagoJoe or Dallasman generally suggests the person’s location. If it merely says Joe123htu and they have no profile, I sometimes skip over them by ignoring their instant message. But, if their screen name indicates that they are looking for younger girls, for example, Man4ynggrl, I might take a chance.
After going through the above process, I respond to some of the messages. The chats are live. In other words, we are typing back and forth and receiving the messages instantly. Most chats begin with “a/s/l” which means they are asking for an age, sex, and location. So, my answer might be “13/f/ny.” That would mean I am a thirteen-year-old female from New York. Some of the chats that I have begin like this one:
Man4ynggrl: Hi. Are you into older men?
Teen2hot4u: yeah
Man4ynggrl: How old do you like them?
Teen2hot4u: I don’t care so long as he’s cute.
Man4ynggrl: So, you don’t mind if I’m 57?
Teen2hot4u: no way that’s cool with me. Is it cool that im 13?
Man4ynggrl: Sure. Have you had sex yet?
Teen2hot4u: I didn’t really do so much yet but I wanna
Man4ynggrl: If you want to, why haven’t you?
Teen2hot4u: just haven’t found the right guy yet
Man4ynggrl: Maybe I can be that guy
Teen2hot4u: cool*
That chat is just the beginning. They often get extremely graphic later on. Some may even start out very sexual depending upon what the person is hoping to do with a young girl.
As I mentioned earlier, while playing the part of Lorie, I usually stay behind the computer screen. But as Julie, I am the voice on the telephone of the other young girl who, while chatting on the Internet with sexual predators, is in reality, Agent Berglas. When it comes time to call a predator, Agent Berglas contacts me. Calls are arranged when a child predator wants to hear the voice of the girl he has been chatting with online. We never suggest it first. The request usually comes after the predator has expressed an interest in meeting the girl and is looking for reassurance that she is not a law enforcement officer. However, occasionally the request comes from someone only looking for phone sex. We never comply with those.
When I make a call, I go into a room for complete privacy and put a sign on the outside of the door that reads, “Don’t come in. I’m on the phone for the FBI.” Everyone in my family understands what that means: no loud TV, nobody can pick up the extension, and no one can come into the room to talk to me. I have to take a few minutes to compose myself and I wait for Agent Berglas to let me know it’s time.
Sexual predators never doubt Julie’s identity once they hear my voice. They are completely convinced that they have been communicating with a thirteen-year-old, and this allows them to show up at a meeting place with few reservations. In the end, I believe their greatest fear is that my mom will find out. I reassure them that she would punish me if she knew what I was doing, so there is no way I would tell her.
Once a predator has seen the young girl’s picture that Julie or Lorie provides, and chatted with us, showing up for a meeting is the final step that seals his fate. He will be charged even though there is no little girl waiting for him at the meeting place. The chats and phone calls, combined with the attempted meeting, provide more than the requisite intent for an arrest. The evidence is so clear and compelling that most of these predators plead guilty rather than risk going to trial and receiving longer sentences. That is not to say that they could not be arrested prior to a meeting. Many of them send obscene pictures or include enough sexual comments in their chats to warrant an arrest since they think they are communicating with children. However, if their ultimate goal is to have sex with a minor child, we would rather have them attempt to go all the way with their plans so they will receive the maximum sentence that those circumstances would warrant. If an enormous amount of time passes and they waiver on the meeting, but have sent incriminating pictures and said things that are not fit for minors, the evidence already collected is considered in making a determination as to whether there is probable cause for an arrest. But that part of the picture is totally within the hands of the FBI and the Justice Department. I am merely an observer in all of this.
I should explain that I work with—not for—the FBI. The FBI considers me a cooperating witness or a confidential informant. Defense attorneys have other names for me, including “government-employed vigilante,” “dramatist,” “zealot,” “liar,” “slippery person,” “underage teenage vixen,” “clever and cunning bounty hunter,” “confidential witness doorman,” and “walking, talking, reasonable doubt.” But those are just fabricated out of sheer desperation in an effort to make a defendant look innocent.
I am not the usual cooperating witness, as they are generally either victims of a crime or were present while it was occurring. I am also not the typical informant, as (most of the time) those people are looking to make a deal to get out of trouble. I am just a citizen who wants to do something to help children. I know it might be a rarity today, but it is true.
To my knowledge, I am the only non-law enforcement person who the FBI allows to work alongside them on a daily basis in an online undercover operation to put Internet predators in prison. In fact, Agent Berglas has concurred that he knows of no one else who does what I do with the FBI.
It was a process for me to gain the complete trust of the agents, and my credibility is well established at this point. I recently asked Agent Berglas why he allowed me to work so closely with him, and this was his response:
You had a proven track record. You were reliable and always available. I remember any time I called you, no matter what you were doing, you would drop it to make a phone call. And that’s something I didn’t have available to me. Plus, you would be working on the Internet during the hours that I wasn’t. When I went home at 5:00 or 6:00 at night, you were there chatting at 11:00 or 12:00 at night, and that was very useful for credibility of our story—to have a thirteen-year-old girl online that late at night. Not only that, but you were excellent at it: Your phone calls as a thirteen-year-old girl were clearly believable. We would play them in the office and nobody believed that you were a grandmother and could sound so young, or could engage in these types of conversations so well with a straight face. And, the added factor was that you were providing this information with no expectation of a reward. You didn’t have a criminal record that you were looking for help with. And, it was a free source of valuable information for us, and I was careful not to abuse that. I never took you for granted.
I have never given the FBI any information that was not legitimate or could not be used as evidence. While I have no official FBI training, they have offered me guidance regarding the things that I should and should not do while pursuing sexual predators. There is no point in doing this work if I am performing it in a way that leaves the evidence tainted, so I am extremely careful never to cross the line that differentiates between attraction and entrapment, which would mean that I induced a person to commit a crime for which he or she had no propensity. I am also careful about who I turn over to the FBI. I do not want to jump the gun and implicate an innocent person who has come close to crossing a forbidden line that they have no real intention of crossing. I only alert the FBI about someone when it is clear that an adult person on the other end of the chat is interested in having a sexual relationship with a minor child.
There are those people who flirt and give the impression that they are interested but who may really just be lonely or bored men who are looking to chat with anyone who will respond. I have to admit that I haven’t really come across many of them. Most of the time, they are fishing to see if they have found a young girl who would be willing to have sex with an older man. If someone says hello to me using my first name, I know they have read my profile, which gives them enough information right up front to know that I am a young teenage girl. It is doubtful that if they are merely lonely and bored, and not a sexual predator, they would go out of their way to chat with “Lorie,” but I do give them plenty of time to prove to me what their real intentions are.
While the discussion of sex eventually comes up in a chat, I never bring it up first. It is always the predator that makes it clear he is interested in sex, and that he does not care that I am underage. I merely assume the role of a very willing and inexperienced child who is anxious to learn about what grown-ups do.
My goal is to identify sexual predators, not to trap innocent people. I have no agenda, no ulterior motive other than to keep children safe. I do not get invited to ceremonies where special commendations are awarded. My name is never in the newspaper articles or news segments when an arrest is made. My ultimate reward is the satisfaction that I feel when Agent Berglas has called me to let me know that an arrest was successful and nobody was hurt.
In regard to the FBI agents who I work with, they too have no ulterior motives. Yes, they may at times receive commendations for their hard work, as they well should. Those brave men and women have dedicated their lives to keeping our children safe. They are the ones who go out onto the streets and risk their lives to arrest these criminals. I can close my laptop any time I want without having to explain my actions to anyone. The FBI agents are on the job all day and they do a great service to us all. I have a tremendous amount of respect for all of them. They have never once made me feel like an outsider, and I have been shown nothing but appreciation, friendship, and respect from them.
It is not easy spending the day talking to the most perverse elements of our population. But, when one of them is taken off the streets, it means that there are children who can rest easy because another predator is out of commission for a very long time. It took awhile for me to feel comfortable talking to sexual predators. It used to really get under my skin, and every once in awhile I had to pull back and take a break. They are a disgusting breed who will stop at nothing to get what they want. Lorie and Julie have been offered gifts, shopping sprees, dinners, fancy hotel stays, money, trips, and even marriage as enticements to meet a predator for sex. They have also been enticed with compliments and compassion. There are many methods by which these perverts gain favor with children, and there is no way to know what will really happen when one of them gets close to a young child. Some have been found with weapons and drugs. Others go as far as to commit murder. So, it is comforting to know that for every extra minute that I put up with their sick, demented comments, I am keeping them from contacting a real child.
I have been working with the FBI since spring 2003. At first, I assumed that I would remain behind my computer screen, never revealing my identity or the work that I do to identify predators. However, things have happened that were not part of my initial plan. I went online thinking that all I had to do was turn sexual predators over to the authorities, and that would be the extent of my involvement. However, as you will see later on, at times I have gotten in way over my head, even coming face-to-face with a couple of my Internet “boyfriends.”
The teen in the chatrooms and the young voice on the other end of the phone line has evolved into the woman who might show up at an arrest scene, or the witness who testifies at a predator’s trial. The dynamics have changed dramatically since I first started sitting at my computer and delving into the dark side of the World Wide Web searching for the deviants who court children. Along with those dynamics has come the revelation that there is a reservoir of sexual predators on the Internet, and it flows right into your home and onto your child’s computer screen. In fact, statistics show that one out of every five children in the United States has been solicited online by sexual predators, and eighty-nine percent of them said they were solicited while in an Internet chatroom. An even more frightening statistic is that in the United States alone, over 2,500 children go missing every single day. Many meet their abductors online.
One problem is that the 550,000 registered sex offenders mentioned earlier are just the ones who have been caught. That number does not include those still getting away with molesting children, or those who have had their names removed from the sex offender registry. On top of that, add the number of offenders who move away and fail to report their new whereabouts. For instance, during the horrendous wrath of Hurricane Katrina that ravaged the south in the late summer of 2005, at least two thousand registered sex offenders apparently vanished from the area and also from the tracking system on which they are required to register. Some were found in other states applying for disaster assistance. While they had applied for relief, they had not put themselves onto a sex offender registry. It was reported that of the three hundred and four known sex offenders who had relocated to Texas, a mere fourteen were known to have registered.
Sexual predators are among us every which way we turn, and they are not who you often envision. Most of them are not walking around in trench coats or wearing ragged clothing and hiding around dark corners waiting to grab unsuspecting children. Of course, there are deviants who do that, but the norm is something that you do not quite expect. While our opinions may have evolved somewhat due to all of the publicity about the church scandals, many of us still do not associate what frocked priests have done with what goes on among the general population. Nobody ever suspects the well-dressed businessman who lives next door and buys your child’s Girl Scout cookies, the soccer coach who pats a kid on the head after a great play, the school bus driver who pulls right up to a house to drop a child off in the rain, the teacher who stays after to tutor a failing student, the pediatrician, friends, siblings, parents, or even a spouse. But the truth is that sexual predators come from all walks of life. They are most often the people we least suspect, which is why you may see their friends and families coming forward in disbelief to stand by the accused.
As a matter of fact, when Steven Dovas went off to prison, supporters posted comments on message boards in his defense. One person claimed to know him well and considered the charges against him to be completely fabricated. While describing the misdeeds of many of those people on the Internet who claim to be young teens, but who are really adults, the blogger defended Dovas to the hilt, insisting that he was only kidding around and that he knew the girl he was chatting with was not really a child. Claiming that the whole thing was based on merely role-play, the writer seemed to have missed the most important part of Dovas’ actions—after having spent an enormous amount of time chatting sexually on the Internet and the telephone with the girl, he showed up at the arranged meeting place to have sex with her. That exceeds role-play.
Other Dovas supporters considered the situation to be a sting, a set-up, the entrapment of a very nice, dedicated, and loving husband who would never hurt a child. This is exactly how he portrayed himself to his family and friends. He knew what he was doing, and he knew how to hide it from those close to him. If Julie had been a real child, Dovas might have gotten away with having sex with her and moved on to other victims.
An important point to clarify is that there is a big difference between a sting operation and entrapment. They are not one and the same. A sting operation is something set up to catch those criminals who have the propensity to commit a crime. This means that they are going to do it. Nobody is forcing them, convincing them, or going after them. The criminals enter the situation because they want to commit the act, they intend to commit the act, and, in fact, they show up to commit the act. Their big mistake is that they think they are talking to children, when they are really communicating with law enforcement officials or people like me. Entrapment happens when law enforcement lures someone who has no propensity to commit a crime into committing that crime. This is not what happened to Steven Dovas. Nobody contacted him first. He went after a young girl, enticed her with promises and compliments, brought up the subject of sex, asked for phone calls, and arranged a meeting with her. Nothing in the chats or phone calls indicated that the girl instigated any part of the situation at all.
Dovas obviously had the people in his personal life fooled. Predators are good at what they do. They work their way into our heads, our hearts, our homes, and then, our children’s lives. And, our kids are often unaware of what is happening. They are taught not to talk to strangers. But, they are also taught to trust their parents’ friends or the officer in a uniform, their physician, their religious instructor, or their teacher. They have a hard time trying to differentiate between the bad people they are warned about and the good people they think they can trust. When they meet someone online, they often believe that they are capable of making an informed decision based on their own judgment. They have long chats with people and, as far as they know, they are receiving enough true information about their new friend to decide how best to proceed. As an adult, I can honestly say that there are times when some of the predators I talk to do a great job of trying to gain my sympathy or making me feel as though I know who they really are. Of course, they do not fool me, but I can see how a young person would believe their lies.
I keep track of those I chat with, and it is fairly common to get different information from them each time. They instant message so many young girls that they forget what they say to them. One day, they say they are forty-three years old and the next, twenty-seven. Some send the same pictures under different screen names or different ones under the same name. I might chat with a person one day and answer all of his questions, only to be instant messaged by him a week later and asked the same things, as though we had never made contact. But, the substance of their chats is still consistent. They have an agenda, and they say whatever they can to entice young children into relationships with them.
Many of the child predators whose cases I have been involved with are people who work with children and/or have children of their own. They seemed like everyday respectable people. As in Dovas’ case, those close to them—families, friends, employers—had no idea what they were doing online. Many hearts were broken, and lives were destroyed. The effects of a sexual predator’s behavior reach very far, to their families, their friends, their colleagues, their neighbors, and their communities. Everyone is touched by what they do. It is not uncommon for those whose family member has been affected by a child predator to question his or her own judgment. “How could I not have known? Why didn’t I recognize what he was doing? Was I in denial?” are all thoughts that run through the minds of those who think they knew the sexual predator well enough to have recognized what he or she was doing with children. It is important to note that just because a child predator has not molested his or her own children, a relative’s children, or the kids next door, that does not mean he is not a sexual predator. These guys are not stupid, and just as a man who does not want to get caught cheating on his wife may go out of his circle of friends to have an affair, so may a child predator. They are sick deviants, but they are not necessarily too ignorant to keep their actions a secret. So, leave the blame where it belongs: on the perverts who destroy our children.
The following chapters will tell the stories of individuals who were living what their families thought were perfectly normal lives. They went about their days following their normal routines, according to what everyone assumed. In reality, they had deep, dark, well-hidden secrets, until they met Julie and Lorie. It was then that they came out of the closet, so to speak. It was with their young prey that they felt most comfortable to reveal who they really were. Everything they said and did was meant to lure a child out from behind the safety of their computers, away from home, and into the arms of perversion. I will take you into their chats, along for the busts, and even into the courtroom where the suspects attempt to defend their actions.
Some were even more deviant than I ever envisioned, like the slave master who was actually looking for underage girls to run away from home to live with him, or the dominant males and females looking for the submissive child who will go along with their every whim. There are also submissive men and women looking for young teenage dominants willing to control them. Another group of select perverts are the ones who expect young children to perform some extremely disgusting acts for them, acts that have shocked even the FBI agents. Then, there are the “daddies.” They are the men who want young girls to dress like little girls, even younger than they actually are, and call them daddy. Some have asked me if I could bring along friends as young as eight or nine years old.
Steven Dovas was really just a run-of-the-mill sexual predator with nothing about him that stood out other than the fact that he had so much going for him and threw it all away. It is not surprising that he worked in a profession that was in many ways connected to children. That’s the point, isn’t it? Sexual predators do everything they can to get close to their victims!
*The screen name Man4ynggrl was invented for purposes of the previous example. I have not had contact with anyone using that screen name and have no information about anyone who may have used, may currently use, or may subsequently use that screen name.