FBI Says Deputy Admits Using Internet to Seek Sex With Girl

PALMDALE — A sheriff’s deputy has admitted sending sexually explicit messages over the Internet to someone he thought was a 13-year-old girl and trying to meet her for sex, according to an FBI criminal complaint released Monday.

Steven Brown, a 41-year-old patrol deputy with the Palmdale station of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, was arrested Friday in West Los Angeles after he allegedly sent an undercover FBI agent a sexually explicit picture, admitted having a preference for girls and tried to arrange a hotel rendezvous.

After his arrest, Brown told FBI agents in an interview about his online conversations with someone he believed to be a 13-year-old girl and that he intended to have sex with her, according to the federal complaint.

Brown, a 14-year veteran of the Sheriff’s Department, has been placed on paid leave, said Deputy Mark Bailey, a department spokesman. The Palmdale resident is being held without bail at the Metropolitan Detention Center in downtown Los Angeles.

According to Timothy Alon, the undercover FBI agent who posed as the eighth-grader “Laura” for a month, Brown and the fictitious girl met Sept. 9 in a Yahoo club that bills itself as “a place for younger girls to meet older men.”

As of Monday, the club’s Web site, which contains a chat room and purports to have been around since February, claims to have more than 4,800 members.

Officials of Yahoo, an Internet search engine, declined to comment on Brown’s arrest or his use of one of their clubs, a free service designed to allow people with similar interests to meet and electronically chat with one another.

The cyber-clubs are self-policing and Yahoo does not actively look for people who might be violating company policy or the law, said Mark Hull, a senior producer of Yahoo clubs.

Hull added that if the company became aware of users who violate its regulations, Yahoo would take appropriate action.

After being told that Laura had blond hair, blue eyes and a slim figure, Brown allegedly propositioned her for sex, according to Alon’s sworn statement.

In subsequent e-mail and messages, Brown told the invented girl: “just the thought of you turns me on,” and mentioned at least two sexual acts that interested him, according to the affidavit.

Brown allegedly told Laura he would send her pictures of himself. In addition to a sexually explicit photo, he sent one of a man in uniform standing next to a “Medal of Valor” sign and a third picture of a man and a boy, who Brown identified as a 9-year-old, according to the affidavit.

Brown, who used the Internet moniker “Lawdude26,” told Laura he was a policeman and implored her not to “run away” because of his profession.

“I am just a normal guy with an attraction for young women,” Brown allegedly wrote. At one point during their online conversations, Brown stated that going to jail would not be an option for him, and to avoid prosecution he would run away, “probably out of the country,” according to Alon.

After Brown allegedly asked Laura to call him, an undercover female FBI agent did. Brown allegedly wrote, “You have a totally cute voice . . . hearing your voice made my heart beat faster.”

Brown and the undercover agent agreed to meet at the food court of the Westside Pavilion, according to the affidavit.

“I am really nervous about meeting in the mall . . . will you promise me that this isn’t some sort of setup . . . and I am not going to get rushed by police there?” Brown allegedly wrote.

On Friday morning, his day off, Brown approached another female undercover officer at the agreed-upon meeting place at the mall, authorities said.

“Hi, are you Laura?” he allegedly asked her. She replied no, and an FBI agent arrested him.

Brown’s colleagues said they felt sad and disturbed about his arrest. “It’s a tragic shame,” said Deputy John Kiess, adding that he has known Brown for 10 years and thought of him as a good guy.

Sgt. Allen Harris of the Palmdale station described Brown as someone who was “quiet and got along well with his peers.”

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Times staff writer Tina Daunt contributed to this story.