Police Cast Electronic Net In Pursuing Internet Predators

By Andrew Gorosko

Police this week arrested a seventh man in their continuing series of investigations into alleged Internet predators, charging him with seeking to entice a minor to engage in sexual activity.

On March 6, police charged Andrew Nero, 31, of Bethel with use of a computer to entice a minor to engage in sexual activity, and also with criminal attempt to commit risk of injury or impair the morals of a minor.

After processing the arrest, police said they held Nero on $50,000 bail for arraignment the following day in Danbury Superior Court.

Since last August, police have arrested seven men in their continuing series of separate investigations into Internet predators, in which police have posed as nonexistent underage minors. 

Police made the fifth arrest for those offenses on February 27, when they charged a 29-year-old Stratford man with those crimes, and the sixth arrest on February 28, when they charged a 59-year-old Cromwell man with those offenses.

Since last August, police have arrested four other out-of-town men on similar charges. Those men are from Weston, Southbury, Woodbury, and Bloomfield.

The six separate criminal cases involve men who unknowingly had Internet communications with a Newtown police officer who was posing as a nonexistent minor, said Police Chief Michael Kehoe. The criminal cases are being adjudicated in court, he said.

Town police are taking a “pro-active” stance in conducting such investigations in seeking to find Internet predators who might pose risks to the community, he said.

Chief Kehoe declined to allow Detective Jason Frank, who is the investigator of record in the cases, to publicly discuss the methodology used by police in pursuing such Internet predators.

Chief Kehoe acknowledged that there have been no actual underage persons as victims of the alleged Internet predators, but only a police officer or officers who have been posing as such underage persons in seeking to make arrests.

Police have sought to arrest Internet predators to preempt them from potentially coming into physical contact with actual underage victims, the police chief said.

“It’s part of our law enforcement duties here in Newtown,” Chief Kehoe said.

The men whom police have arrested on the Internet sex charges have had a range on reactions to their arrests, he said.

Most of the men have been arrested without arrest warrants, being charged as a consequence of recently-conducted  Internet-based communications between the men and police officers posing as underage persons.

Police plan to continue with such investigations, Chief Kehoe said.

“Every investigation is different,” he said, observing that there could be a variety of reasons why offenders engage in such activity.

Assuming a pro-active stance in terms of Internet predation is preferable to having to deal with the consequences of underage people being victimized, he said.