Man Found Guilty in Internet Sexual Chat Case

A Woodland Hills man who made sexual advances in an Internet chat room to an undercover FBI agent posing as a young girl was found guilty Thursday of two counts of attempting to send harmful matter to a minor.

In a case closely watched by law enforcement, the jury rejected a key defense argument: that online sexual banter cannot be taken seriously because of the Internet’s anonymous environment.

Instead, the West Los Angeles Superior Court jury sided with the prosecution’s contention that the law should treat cyberspace chats just like any other communication and that defendant Aidin Ghaffari believed he was asking a 13-year-old for sex.

“Our office is really pleased,” said Deputy Dist. Atty. Wendy Segall. “I think this is the public’s opinion on just how dangerous the Internet can be.”

Ghaffari’s lawyer, James E. Blatt, said he would appeal.

The jury deadlocked 7 to 5, however, on the charge of attempted lewd acts.

In October, Ghaffari struck up an online conversation with someone who said she was 13 and a virgin. He wrote her: “We’re gonna have sex, OK?” They agreed to a rendezvous, and he got within 20 feet of their meeting spot before he was arrested.

Ghaffari, 22, faces up to three years in state prison when he is sentenced May 17, Segall said.

His arrest was the result of undercover operations by a multi-agency team that included local, state and federal law enforcement officers.

“Everybody’s taking a look [at this case] to see what would happen, how the law would be interpreted and how people view the Internet,” said FBI Special Agent Randy Aden, the team’s supervisor.

Although many arrests have been made for crimes involving cyberspace, the defendants usually have taken plea bargains, prosecutors said. In the Southland, at least two other cases similar to this have gone to trial, but both involved federal law. Ghaffari was charged under state law.

Loren Naiman, who heads the district attorney’s High-Technology Analysis and Litigation Team, said: “The entire law enforcement on this subject is in its babyhood. We are examining this case as a model.”