The ex-CEO of Colorado based Sunflower Markets Supermarket chain is the latest victim of a police sting in Phoenix hoping to catch potential sex offenders. Local police wrote and published an ad in a newspaper selling the sexual services of an eighteen year-old female. In Denver, Douglas, Larimer, and Weld County, the legal age of consent is eighteen, which the ad clearly stated was the age of their decoy. It was until after the CEO called the number inquiring about her “services” that the undercover cop said she was seventeen but would be turning eighteen in two months. The CEO rightfully questioned the legality of the arrangement, but was quickly brushed off by the decoy who instead challenged him to come and prove he was not a cop. When he arrived to meet the decoy he was arrested for child prostitution by waiting police officers.

In Jefferson, Adams, or Arapahoe County, this type of crime may result in a sex offense charge of Sexual Assault on a Child (CRS 18-3-405), or Patronizing a Prostituted Child (CRS 18-7-406). In any type of police sting operation, entrapment may be introduced by the defense to counter the charges the District Attorney wants to press against the defendant. In this case, the defense team was able to convince the District Attorney to let the accused man plead guilty to one felony count of attempted pandering. He will avoid prison, but will be on Sex Offender Intensive Supervised Probation for an indeterminate amount of time.

Colorado has some of the strictest punishments for sex offenders in the United States. Indeterminate Sentencing, Sex Offender Intensive Supervised Probation, and Registration as a Sex Offender are all part of a conviction of a felony sex offense or part of a plea taken by the defendant in a sex offense case.

If you were entrapped in a police sting, be smart, exercise your right to remain silent, and contact the experienced criminal defense attorneys at the O'Malley Law Office at 303-830-0880. Together, we can protect your future.