No day at the beach

It’s early spring—a few months away from the busy summer season. This house on the Jersey shore would normally still be closed up. Instead, it’s become the destination for potential internet sex predators. 

Chris Hansen: This was like a three- to four-million dollar home?

Lt. Mike Nevil: Yes.

Lieutenant Mike Nevil has worked in the computer sex crimes unit for the Ocean County prosecutor’s office for the last seven years.

Hansen: And guys were walking in there like they owned it?

Lt. Nevil: Yeah … I think people need to understand that it—it doesn’t matter whether it’s a four-million dollar home on the beach—and that was great to prove a point.

Lt. Nevil: The location doesn’t matter to these people.  It could be a parked car. It could be a hotel. It could be a mall. 

But as you’ll see, some are cautious as they pull up to our house.

23-year-old Daniel Figueroa arrived to meet a girl who said she was 14. He walks up to the house, looks around, gets back in his car and drives off. He drives back to the house two more times. The decoy tries to wave him in.  He even starts checking mailboxes so he can scope out the house. But after he leaves for a third time...

Cop: I have a tail on him now.

The police arrest him.

Later, Frag spots the vehicle of another man who’s trying to be tricky.

Frag: Oh, is that—no. That’s our target vehicle right there?

He checks out the house and leaves. Then, without telling the decoy, he comes back the next evening. He’s made the one hour trip twice!

He’s 37-year-old Selwyn Knights, here for a date with a 14-year-old.

Decoy: Hi.

Selwyn Knights: What’s going on?

Decoy: Oh, hi, I didn’t know you were coming.

Knights: Yeah.

Decoy: Oh, come on in.

But he’s nervous. He sees another car pulling up.

Decoy: Come on in.  Just come on in.

Knights: Something’s acting all weird there.  I’ll be right back.

Decoy: Wait.  No, just come in.  I think you’ll be fine if you come in.

He tells the decoy he’s going to move his truck.

Frag: We feel he’s just going to try and high tail it out of here.

The police follow him and arrest him down the road.

But not every man is cautious...

Frag: Dwayne Chisholm, 29…

Here’s a “To Catch a Predator” first—this man is here to meet a 14-year-old girl, even though he’s been told her parents are home. The plan is for her to slip away when he arrives. He brazenly drives right up to the house and asks the decoy if it’s all clear.

Decoy: Hey!

Dwayne Chisolm: How’re you doing?

Decoy: Good. How are you?

Chisholm: Good.

Decoy: I’m glad you could make it.

Chisholm: Me, too.

Decoy: And guess what, my parents went to the movies.

Chisholm: Stop.

Decoy: I swear, they’re gone. Come on in.

He’s 29-year-old Dwayne Chisholm, a manager at a gym. He’s been chatting online with a decoy for two weeks. Calling himself lovermangenuis—he spells genius incorrectly—he sends the decoy, who is pretending to be 14, pictures of himself as a body builder.

Decoy: I saw his pictures and I was honestly really scared because he was a body builder he could probably grab me with his hand and squeeze the guts out of me.

Then he sends her pictures of his genitals.

(chat transcript)

Lovermangenuis: have you had something that big already?

Decoy: not that big.

Lovermangenuis:  I’ll be you’re a good lover, slow and soft.

Decoy: I just hope you like it.

Lovermangenuis: and I hope you like it too.

Now "lovermangenuis" is getting comfortable in our beach chair.  After only a few minutes of chatting, he wants the decoy to sit on his lap.

Decoy: I’m so glad you came. (laughter)

Chisholm: I’m glad too.

Decoy: Yeah.

Chisholm: Do you want to come on over.

Decoy: I want to talk a little first.

Chisholm: No problem. That’s fine.

Decoy: If that’s okay with you.

That was my cue to step in.

Chris Hansen: Hey, how are you?

Chisholm: I’m good. I’m good. How are you?

Chris Hansen: What’s happening?

The decoy steps away so I can get better acquainted with 29-year-old "lovermangenuis."

Hansen: The girl you were chatting with online was how old?

Chisholm: As far as I know, 14.

Chris Hansen: What if you had a 14-year-old sister, how would you feel if some guy came over?

Chisholm: Not good.

Chris Hansen: You tell her that you want her to masturbate and think of you before she goes to bed. All that is illegal to try to solicit a minor online right and then try and come up and have sex with her. What do you think would have happened tonight, Dwayne, if this 14-year-old girl was open-minded?

Chisholm: I don’t know, I mean—I don’t know. I wouldn’t want to say one thing or the other.

Chris Hansen: So, you wouldn’t rule out the possibility of you having sex with the girl?

Chisholm: I wouldn’t force her to do anything that she would’ve (unintelligible) want to do.

Chris Hansen: But here’s the problem. At 14, she cannot legally give consent and that’s why it’s considered in many places statutory rape.

Chris Hansen: Well, Dwayne, do you watch much television?

Chisholm: A little bit when I have time.

Chris Hansen: Do you ever watch Dateline NBC?

Chisholm: I guess I’m on it right now, right?

Chris Hansen: So, you kind of figured out what’s going on?

Chisholm: (laughter) I mean, you hear about it and you sit there and you’re like, “Man, these poor guys like, these guys are such idiots.” And “What are these guys thinking?” and then, you know, and you’re like—you know, you see some guys that’s just like, “Wow, like, these guys are just really, really disturbed.”

Chris Hansen: Well, give me a sense of what went on in your mind to make you one of those guys tonight?

Chisholm: Just bored and lonely … I mean here’s my thing. I know there’s no excuse. You know, there’s no excuse, you get caught up in a rut. You work 70 hours a week. Life is tough. And you just—

Chris Hansen: Yeah, but I still don’t get the link between working hard, having an aggressive job and grooming a 14-year-old girl online to the point where you have a face to face meeting in the hopes of having a sexual liaison.

Chisholm: I don’t know. Like I said, there’s no justification for it.

Chris Hansen: Well, I’m Chris Hansen with Dateline NBC and we’re doing a story on adults who meet kids online and then try to meet them for sex in person.

Chisholm: Wow. I mean—I’m apologetic for—my behavior.

While "lovermangenuis" continues to apologize, another man shows up.

He makes a U-turn, then beeps the horn, looks over, spots our operation and takes off.

Frag: Pennsylvania plates out of Philadelphia.  James Erik Santil, 29. 

Frag alerts the police. Who send marked cars to pull him over and arrest him.  Turns out he’s a school bus driver.

Back at the house, "lovermangenuis" asks an unusual question.

Chisholm: So, when do I get to see myself on TV?

Chris Hansen: Well, we haven’t figured all that out yet, we’re still doing the story.

Chisholm: I understand. I understand, I’m going to have a whole lot of people that I know seeing it and like, “Oh my god … this guy he helps me out in the gym” … You know. I might have to look for new work.

Chris Hansen: Alright. You’re alright?

Chisholm: Yeah, I’m alright.

But he probably won’t be alright for long—his trouble has just begun.

(arrest)

Police officer: Alright. Just relax. Put your head (unintelligible)--

Police officer: We’re not going to do anything to hurt you.

As “To Catch a Predator” New Jersey continues, there will be more firsts. This man puts our decoy to the marijuana sniff test. And another one seems more worried about how he’s getting home than being caught in our investigation.

Malik Washington: Can you give me a ride home?  Because I don’t—

Chris Hansen: I can’t give you a ride, sorry.

Washington: I have to walk back?

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