40-year-old man arrested for alleged sexually motivated messages with 14-year-old boy
A 40-year-old man was behind bars today for allegedly sending sexually motivated messages to someone he believed was a 14-year-old boy in Palm Desert.
The Hemet man was arrested Tuesday night on suspicion of contacting a minor to commit a felony and attempting oral copulation with a person under 16 years of age, according to Sgt. Josh Button of the Riverside County Sheriff's Department.
Button said that a YouTube influencer group made a call for service around 4 p.m. that day in the 72300 block of Highway 111.
"The group called dispatch to notify the department they would be confronting a man who worked in the area regarding sexually motivated communications he was having with a person he believed to be a 14 year-old boy," Button said in a statement. "The group live-streamed the confrontation on YouTube."
The group was then taken to the Palm Desert sheriff's station, where they provided deputies with communications between their guise of the boy and, allegedly the suspect, according to Button.
The suspect was subsequently booked into the John J. Benoit Detention Center in Indio, where he remains held on $55,000, according to court records.
Anyone with more information on the suspect was asked to call Investigator Jose Munoz of the Palm Desert Sheriff's Station at 760-836-1600.
