Man, 33, Arrested in Internet Child Molestation Case
A man who allegedly tried to use the Internet to lure a 14-year-old girl to a sexual tryst in a Glendale hotel room was met instead Thursday by police officers who arrested him.
Ted Carlos Moreno, a 33-year-old bartender from Sun Valley, was charged with attempted child molestation and transmitting pornography over the Internet to arouse a minor, according to Chahe Keuroghelian, a spokesman for the Glendale Police Department.
The arrest concluded a six-week investigation that began when a 20-year-old Glendale resident alerted police that his younger sister had been exchanging e-mail with Moreno, whom she met in an Internet chat room. The brother was suspicious of Moreno’s intentions, Keuroghelian said.
A police officer assumed the girl’s identity on the Internet and Moreno sent her a nude photograph of himself by e-mail, Keuroghelian said. Moreno also encouraged the teenager to run away from home and live with him, police said.
“Communication continued to the point where they finally agreed to a meeting and to engage in sexual acts,” Keuroghelian said. When Moreno arrived at 10:30 a.m. Thursday in the lobby of the hotel where he had reserved a room, police arrested him.
A search of Moreno’s house turned up evidence of other similar activity, Keuroghelian said. He would not elaborate.
“We strongly believe there may be other victims out there, and we want them to come forward,” he said.
Moreno was being held at Glendale City Jail in lieu of $75,000 bail. His arraignment was scheduled for Jan. 19 in Pasadena Superior Court.
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