Over the last several months, Lincoln City Police Officers have been conducting several online child-luring investigations. Posing as underage children on various social media platforms, the undercover officers went online and were subsequently contacted by adult men who offered to meet up with a person they believed to be a minor for sex or used online communications to solicit a child to engage in sexual contact or sexually explicit conduct. During the course of these investigations, the following arrests were made.
On Oct. 2, 49-year-old James O. Robinson of Myrtle Point, Ore., was arrested after he arrived at an undisclosed public location to meet up with a minor for sex. He was taken into custody by Lincoln City Police and subsequently transported to the Lincoln County Jail where he was lodged on criminal charges of Luring a Minor, Online Sexual Corruption of a Child in the first degree, Attempted Rape III, and Attempted Sodomy III and Attempted Sexual Abuse III.
On Aug. 21, 30-year-old Ryan R. Braddock of Otis, was arrested during an unrelated incident. Prior to this arrest Braddock had been chatting online with two different undercover officers who were both posing as 15-year-old children. Throughout the course of the online conversations, he began engaging in inappropriate sexual dialogue with the purported minors and also wanted to meet up with them. Braddock was subsequently lodged in the Lincoln County Jail on criminal charges of, 2 counts of Luring a Minor, 2 counts of Online Sexual Corruption of a Child in the second degree, and Parole Violation.
The Lincoln City Police would like to take the opportunity to encourage parents to monitor their children’s social media activity and discuss with them the possible dangers of communicating with strangers online. These investigations are conducted in an effort to reduce criminal activity and to further enhance the safety of our community.