LANCASTER – An 18-year-old Rhode Island man who pleaded no contest to charges that he arranged to meet a 12-year-old Palmdale girl for a sexual encounter was sentenced Friday to a year in county jail and ordered to register as a sex offender for the rest of his life.
Joel Rivera was also ordered to undergo one year of sex offender counseling, perform 30 days of community labor and serve five years on probation, according to the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office.
Superior Court Judge Frank Tavelman suspended a five-year, eight-month state prison term that Rivera will not have to serve unless he violates the terms of his probation.
Rivera pleaded no contest March 23 to one count each of meeting a minor for lewd purposes, contact with a minor for sexual purposes and distributing or showing pornography to a minor.
Rivera began contacting the girl through an anonymous webcam chatting app last August, just after he turned 18, according to Deputy District Attorney Jon Hatami.
The girl’s mother contacted the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department after becoming aware that Rivera planned to fly from Rhode Island for a planned sexual encounter with her daughter, the prosecutor said.
Rivera was arrested last September after arriving at Bob Hope Airport in Burbank.
Previous related stories:
Man pleads to arranging to meet 12-year-old Palmdale girl for sex
Rhode Island man charged with arranging to meet 12-year-old Palmdale girl for sex
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Mars says
If people don’t understand what everyone is/are susceptible to on the internet also Please watch the View Channel 7 / KABC Today April 19, 2016. There are also books available. The pressure the internet gives is so real that Parents need to wake up and monitor what there children are doing. Someone needs to teach how parents can monitor the Internet for there kids and help Educate All the way around.
Melanie says
This is repulsive. Yes, girls are capable of being more provacative and advanced than boys, but that does NOT mean an 18 year old grown male shouldn’t know better than to deny a sexual invitation from a clear-cut minor. Case closed. Unless he is mentally delayed in any way, there is no way his intentions with a TWELVE YEAR OLD CHILD are innocent. Furthermore, regardless of parenting or “being from the AV”, a 12 year old’s brain is not fully developed in making executive decisions, obviously, so even if she did solicit his attention, she clearly isn’t cognissant of her actions because of her age. Read an anatomy book and stop being so ignorant. Classic Antelope Valley.
Mel says
Thank you so much Melanie! I share your revulsion for the pedophilic comments attempting to justify this young man’s actions by blaming the victim or arguing had he been 17 what he did would be legal (summary of comments from a previous story). This sort of thinking makes my skin crawl. Not knowing any of the background to this story, all I can hope is that the child gets the appropriate help as well to ensure this never happens again.
kd says
Pedophile sympathizers…The sick son of a b…. is in jail where he belongs.#Stoppedofilesympathizing
Nataly says
But he probably didn’t know her age because little girls now a days aren’t raised correctly there’s two sides to this story and the main fault is the mother because I don’t think her daughter is so innocent either. She probably didn’t say an age and he maybe didn’t ask because she looked old enough and if he came out here she was obviously talking to him about sex I’m not defending him but I’m not on the little girls side because it’s the moms fault and I hope the mom of this child sees this because she obviously didn’t raise her child correctly or wasn’t paying enough attention for her to be arranging a sex meet
who is really guilty???? says
how was the guy when they first started texting? what website was being use for them to meet? what age did the girl claim to be? How many tit pics did she send and what did she ask for back? how long was it going on before her mother noticed? far too many questions on this one.
Nataly says
Exactly my point
Mars says
I am sorry but I don’t agree with this. Girls especially out here in the Antelope Valley are much advanced for there age. Many parents don’t supervise there children’s actions. If we are changing the smoking age to 21 I think a male under 21 are not considered adults. It has been proven girls are more advanced than boys. I have male and female children and male female adult children. I believe we have predators everywhere but the AV has them everywhere because no one believes young girls can do no wrong and and they are allowed to do whatever they want without supervision..What did this 12yr old girl do to entice this 18yr old to come here from Rhode Island?..What actions did this 12yr old girl commit?..What actions has this girls family even taking that this girl is even having the ability and thinking she can communicate with a person much older than herself?.. I wish the courts out here would be investigated because it seems many people have to answer for chump charges and are being convicted without having anybody fight for them..being accused is being convicted out here in the courts before you can even defend yourself cause there is no defence available..the prosecutor has already made the deals with the defence before you go to court…What is the 12 yr old doing and thinking when she’s contacting this 18yr old?Why is she the victim if she is continuing this promiscuous behavior?.. Don’t get me wrong there are Pedophiles out there and preying on young children. But when does the parents of the children provoking these action take responsibility and control the actions of this child that is provoking the behavior?.. Its It’s unfair that this 18 yr old considered an adult provoked actions has to suffer for the rest of there life. It’s obvious that parents need to be more supervising when dealing with there children and if so there would be better outcomes..
VENUS says
I agree, Very well said….I am a mother of Adult Males and Females, plus Teen boys and girls still at home. TRUE MEGAN LAW OFFENDERS ARE AROUND, but when The Teen girls pre-tend to be 18yrs old on Social Media Sites and send pictures and text to them then something has to be done about the girls acting like that. These girls need to be held accountable for the actions that they do on social media sites also.