By Alex Christodoulides
A 27-year-old Brooklyn man was arraigned earlier this month after the 14-year-old girl he thought he was meeting at the movies in Fresh Meadows turned out to be an undercover police officer, the Queens district attorney said.
Emmanuel Maldonado, 27, of Brooklyn, was arrested May 2 and charged the following day with attempting to rape, commit a criminal sexual act, disseminate indecent materials to a minor and endangering the welfare of a child, Queens District Attorney Richard Brown said last week.
Maldonado, an unemployed security guard, was ordered held on $10,000 bail and faces up to four years in prison if convicted, the DA said.
On the evening of April 15, 2008, a male NYPD vice detective was working undercover in a public chat room on the Internet, posing as a 14-year-old girl from Queens when he allegedly began receiving instant messages from Maldonado, who used the screen name “manny556955,” according to the charges filed against Maldonado in Queens Criminal Court.
During their conversations, Maldonado allegedly asked about the undercover's age, where she lived and with whom, the DA said. After the detective confirmed that he was a 14-year-old girl who lived with her grandmother, Maldonado allegedly began asking questions about her physique and what she liked to do sexually as well as when she might be alone in the house, the DA said. Before signing off, Maldonado allegedly asked, “U not a cop or something?”
During several Internet chats between April 16 and May 1, Maldonado allegedly gave the undercover detective his cell phone number and repeatedly tried to persuade her to drop her insistence that he wear a condom when they met and had sex, the DA said.
A youthful-looking female undercover officer adopted the 14-year-old girl persona the detective had created, and she received several phone calls from Maldonado, the DA said. On May 1, Maldonado instant messaged the undercover detective and said they should meet May 2 at the Fresh Meadows movie theater at 190-02 Horace Harding Blvd., the DA said.
When the female undercover arrived at the movie theater, the undercover detective and his team were nearby, DA Brown said. Maldonado arrived at about 5:40 p.m. and approached the female undercover, then the two went to a nearby Boston Market restaurant, the DA said.
While they ate, Maldonado told the undercover he wanted to go to her home, not the movies, the DA said. She told him if they were going to do what Maldonado had talked about online, he would have to get condoms, the DA said. Maldonado agreed, and as they walked back to his car and he opened the passenger door for the undercover, he was arrested, the DA said.
