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Coos Bay man arrested on child sex charge
By Carl Mickelson, Staff Writer
Friday, May 05, 2006 | No comments posted.
A Coos Bay man who FBI agents contend chatted online with someone he thought was a 13-year-old girl was taken into custody April 24 by the FBI and members of the Laguna Beach Police Department in California.
According to an FBI press release, Avrum R. Fried, 58, appeared before a federal judge April 26 and was charged with intending to engage in illicit sexual conduct with a minor.
According to information contained within a federal criminal complaint filed in the U.S. district court in Los Angeles, Fried used his personal computer to correspond with a 13-year-old girl named “Amy,” who was actually, during different online chats, either a member of a citizens' watchdog group, or Christina Lewis, an undercover special agent in the FBI's sex crimes division.
Fried and Amy met through the Web site MySpace.com earlier this year. The Web site allows its members to create profiles of themselves, including photos, graphics and Web logs, or blogs. Through the site, members can invite friends and strangers to their sites to engage in online chats, and read their Internet diaries.
Authorities charge Fried and Amy engaged in numerous conversations via private chat rooms provided by MySpace.com. Through a series of online exchanges seized by authorities, police suspect Fried meant to entice the girl to engage in sexual acts with him.
Fried was arrested around 10 a.m. on Monday, April 24, in Laguna Beach after arranging to meet Amy at Heisler Park near a lawn bowling green. The two had prearranged the meeting online a few days before. In excerpts from log entries, the suspect told Amy he was flying into John Wayne Airport on April 20 in Santa Ana and would be spending several days visiting his father, who lives on Laguna Canyon Road.
But instead of meeting 13-year-old Amy, he was met by awaiting law enforcement officers.
At 9:30 a.m. on April 24, special Agent Neeki S. Star of the FBI sat on a park bench at Heisler Park, posing as the 13-year-old Amy, while a team of law enforcement officials provided surveillance nearby. Fried was arrested that morning after police said he approached Star, asked if she was Amy and tried to give her a hug.
“He was arrested down here when he showed up for the meet,” said FBI spokeswoman Laura Eimiller of the Los Angeles bureau.
During a search that morning, a Santa Ana Police officer said he found a blue pill in the suspect's jacket pocket and he was told by Fried it was half a Viagra.
According to Lewis' affidavit, Sgt. Darin Lenyi, of the Laguna Beach Police Department, contacted the FBI on March 29 after a member of a citizens' watchdog group, who specializes in finding people who prey on minors in cyberspace, said she believed she was in communication with an Oregon man who initiated online sexual discussions with an online persona he was told was a 13-year-old girl.
“U don't care that im 13?” Amy asked in one of the first e-mail exchanges.
“Not if u don't care that I'm 48,” the man replied.
The FBI got involved April 5, after it became apparent to them the suspect was interested in traveling across state lines to meet Amy in person.
Included in Lewis' affidavit are nearly 20 pages of excerpts from online conversations beginning March 9 between Amy, who used the username “ima_beangirl2” and a man who used the online identity “Perv4Life69,” and later “El Deviato.” The latter name was used after MySpace.com officials shut down “Perv4Life69” after another MySpace.com member complained of being harassed.
The online identities “Perv4Life69” and “El Deviato” were tied to the same e-mail address which had a username of “dveightus,” a name the suspect explains in one log entry as a play on the word “deviate.” On Fried's MySpace.com account, authorities said his listed occupation was “pederast.”
The FBI was able to gain access to the log entries after subpoenaing Yahoo! Inc. for subscriber information and archived log entries, and Charter Communications. Using the information attained from those companies, the FBI linked the suspect to a Coos Bay post office box used to open the MySpace.com account.
In the excerpts contained within the criminal complaint the suspect tells Amy the flavor of lip gloss he likes girls to wear and how older men can teach young girls how to make love. He explains to her that some cultures in Africa, Tahiti and Borneo have different perspectives on sex than Americans, including children whose first sexual encounters are with their parents.
“What's natural in one society is evil in another,” dveightus wrote to Amy on March 28. “It's all about social morals in that particular society.”
Fried was in court April 26 for a hearing in which he was denied bail. His preliminary hearing is set for Tuesday and he is scheduled to be arraigned on May 15.
On April 26, FBI agents from the Portland office executed a search warrant of Fried's residence in Coos Bay, located at 657 Donnelly Ave.
Telephone calls to Fried's California attorney, a deputy federal public defender, were not returned by presstime.
According to an FBI press release, Avrum R. Fried, 58, appeared before a federal judge April 26 and was charged with intending to engage in illicit sexual conduct with a minor.
According to information contained within a federal criminal complaint filed in the U.S. district court in Los Angeles, Fried used his personal computer to correspond with a 13-year-old girl named “Amy,” who was actually, during different online chats, either a member of a citizens' watchdog group, or Christina Lewis, an undercover special agent in the FBI's sex crimes division.
Fried and Amy met through the Web site MySpace.com earlier this year. The Web site allows its members to create profiles of themselves, including photos, graphics and Web logs, or blogs. Through the site, members can invite friends and strangers to their sites to engage in online chats, and read their Internet diaries.
Authorities charge Fried and Amy engaged in numerous conversations via private chat rooms provided by MySpace.com. Through a series of online exchanges seized by authorities, police suspect Fried meant to entice the girl to engage in sexual acts with him.
Fried was arrested around 10 a.m. on Monday, April 24, in Laguna Beach after arranging to meet Amy at Heisler Park near a lawn bowling green. The two had prearranged the meeting online a few days before. In excerpts from log entries, the suspect told Amy he was flying into John Wayne Airport on April 20 in Santa Ana and would be spending several days visiting his father, who lives on Laguna Canyon Road.
But instead of meeting 13-year-old Amy, he was met by awaiting law enforcement officers.
At 9:30 a.m. on April 24, special Agent Neeki S. Star of the FBI sat on a park bench at Heisler Park, posing as the 13-year-old Amy, while a team of law enforcement officials provided surveillance nearby. Fried was arrested that morning after police said he approached Star, asked if she was Amy and tried to give her a hug.
“He was arrested down here when he showed up for the meet,” said FBI spokeswoman Laura Eimiller of the Los Angeles bureau.
During a search that morning, a Santa Ana Police officer said he found a blue pill in the suspect's jacket pocket and he was told by Fried it was half a Viagra.
According to Lewis' affidavit, Sgt. Darin Lenyi, of the Laguna Beach Police Department, contacted the FBI on March 29 after a member of a citizens' watchdog group, who specializes in finding people who prey on minors in cyberspace, said she believed she was in communication with an Oregon man who initiated online sexual discussions with an online persona he was told was a 13-year-old girl.
“U don't care that im 13?” Amy asked in one of the first e-mail exchanges.
“Not if u don't care that I'm 48,” the man replied.
The FBI got involved April 5, after it became apparent to them the suspect was interested in traveling across state lines to meet Amy in person.
Included in Lewis' affidavit are nearly 20 pages of excerpts from online conversations beginning March 9 between Amy, who used the username “ima_beangirl2” and a man who used the online identity “Perv4Life69,” and later “El Deviato.” The latter name was used after MySpace.com officials shut down “Perv4Life69” after another MySpace.com member complained of being harassed.
The online identities “Perv4Life69” and “El Deviato” were tied to the same e-mail address which had a username of “dveightus,” a name the suspect explains in one log entry as a play on the word “deviate.” On Fried's MySpace.com account, authorities said his listed occupation was “pederast.”
The FBI was able to gain access to the log entries after subpoenaing Yahoo! Inc. for subscriber information and archived log entries, and Charter Communications. Using the information attained from those companies, the FBI linked the suspect to a Coos Bay post office box used to open the MySpace.com account.
In the excerpts contained within the criminal complaint the suspect tells Amy the flavor of lip gloss he likes girls to wear and how older men can teach young girls how to make love. He explains to her that some cultures in Africa, Tahiti and Borneo have different perspectives on sex than Americans, including children whose first sexual encounters are with their parents.
“What's natural in one society is evil in another,” dveightus wrote to Amy on March 28. “It's all about social morals in that particular society.”
Fried was in court April 26 for a hearing in which he was denied bail. His preliminary hearing is set for Tuesday and he is scheduled to be arraigned on May 15.
On April 26, FBI agents from the Portland office executed a search warrant of Fried's residence in Coos Bay, located at 657 Donnelly Ave.
Telephone calls to Fried's California attorney, a deputy federal public defender, were not returned by presstime.
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