Internet Law News

Roy Man Convicted Under Utah's New Internet Law

     Jurors deliberated for an hour and a half before convicting 35-year-old Raymond Silvaz on Thursday for arranging on an Internet chat room to have a sexual relationship with a 13-year-old boy. The Roy man is the first person to be convicted by a jury of the new Utah law that prohibits enticing a minor over the Internet to engage in sexual activity.
     On May 24, Silvaz began chatting on the Internet with an undercover agent posing as a 13-year-old boy. During the conversation, Silvaz repeatedly asked to meet for sexual acts. When the agent wrote that he was only in eighth grade Silvaz responded "that's fine" and offered to rent a room and meet him at a local hotel. He was arrested the same night in front of the hotel.
During the trial, Silvaz maintained he knew he wasn't really chatting with a minor and he thought it might be a friend teasing him. The jury found Silvaz guilty of a second degree felony of enticement of a minor using a computer and two misdemeanor counts for assaulting a police officer during the arrest.
     Prosecutors have already accepted pleas after the law went into effect this year but this is the first time a suspect has gone to trial under the new statute.
     "It was the first test of the law in front of a jury," said Assistant Attorney General Jason Perry, who successfully prosecuted Silvaz. "This shows we have an effective tool to use against Internet predators."
     Silvaz will be sentenced in January at the Third District Court in Murray.

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