Citizen Tip Leads to Arrest and Indictment

(Los Angeles, 30 March 2007) The Los Angeles Office of the FBI will issue a press release later today about a citizen tip that has led to the arrest of an alleged online sexual predator, Assignment Zero has learned.

The FBI has been tracking the man since 1999 as he allegedly went in and out of internet chat rooms, establishing contact with minors, for the purposes of allegedly soliciting sex. The man, who used the screen name "stigmataxy," frequented the "Hollywood Cafe" chat room where he made lewd and suggestive comments to underage girls, according to the indictment. He is David Charles Leonard, formerly of Long Beach, CA. He was arrested in Portland, Or.

So far, the only charge against the man is possession of child pornography, but further charges may be determined when the full investigation has been completed, according to Laura Eimiller, Press Liaison for the FBI in Los Angeles.

In a conversation with Eimiller, earlier today, she spoke of the Bureau’s close cooperation and task force alliance with, among others, The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC).

“Missing and exploited children doesn’t seem to be as newsworthy as it used to be,” Eimiller said, speaking of the media coverage of both the subject matter and law enforcement’s attempts to apprehend perpetrators.

Eimiller explained that this investigation was conducted by the FBI's SAFE Team, a task force which focuses on crimes involving the sexual exploitation of children. The team is comprised of full time members from the FBI, Los Angeles Police Department, Los Angeles Sheriff's Department, California Department of Justice's Bureau of Investigation, Orange County Sheriff's Department, California Highway Patrol, Immigration, the United States Attorney's Office and the District Attorney's Office.

The relevance of this, she explained, is that if the FBI can get a Federal charge against the accused, a guilty verdict will result in 15 years federal prison time for each guilty verdict related to production of child pornography, and five years minimum for possession of child pornography.