Anurag Tiwari

**Anurag Tiwari** is a potential predator caught in the Petaluma, California segment of **To Catch a Predator.**

## Biography

29 year old Tiwari, a Sun Microsystems engineer, began a chat with a decoy posing as a 13 year old girl. He told the decoy he would perform oral sex on her because she was "young and fresh," and then asked if she liked having anal sex. After less than a week when starting the chat with the decoy, Tiwari makes the drive to the sting house. When he is later confronted by Chris Hansen, Tiwari said he wasn't going to do anything. When Chris starts reading from his chatlong, he comes up with multiple excuses. Tiwari claimed that his friend was talking to the decoy using his screen name, said that there was a party going on in his apartment and someone he didn't know logged into his computer.

Chris disregards his excuses, stating that there was sex talk several times and that Tiwari either had a party with people taking control of his computer for several days or was lying. When Chris reveals who he is, and the cameramen come out, Tiwari walks out of the sting house and is arrested by police officers. When investigated by a detective, Tiwari claimed he would not have sex with a 13 year old and asked sexual questions out of "curiousity." Tiwari stated he was a "well respected man in society," and had a PhD degree in computer engineering.

## Behind the scenes

Tiwari was originally charged with two felony counts, including attempted lewd and lascivious acts with a child under the age of 14. Ultimately, one felony was dropped, and later on December 21, 2007, the Sonoma County District Attorney dropped the second felony charge and charged Tiwari with a single misdemeanor offense. He was then acquitted of the misdemeanor in August 2009. The District Attorney then charged him with a different misdemeanor offense. He was convicted of the misdemeanor and sentenced to 2 years of conditional probation, 200 hours of volunteer service, various fines of different amounts, and restricted from contacting minors. Tiwari appealed the misdemeanor, and the charge was reduced to a criminal infraction in a plea deal reached in July 2010. He plead no contest to the infraction and had to pay a $30 court security fee.

In 2011, Tiwari filed a lawsuit and defamation claim against NBC, claiming they violated his Fourth Amendment rights, defamed him, and caused him emotional distress. He stated NBC had directed police to arrest him in a dramatic manner for the benefit of the cameras, with the intention of humiliating him. NBC stated by declaring that the First Amendment protected it from his allegations and filed a protective order against Tiwari. U.S. District Court Judge Edward M. Chen denied the news station's claim that the production and broadcast of the show are inextricably linked. He found that "a reasonable jury could find that it wasn't necessary for police to arrest Tiwari in a sensational way, or film him being restrained in handcuffs during his detention and interview with police." The judge further said that it was possible Tiwari suffered emotional distress when he discovered the filming and recording of events, and that NBC will have to defend its behavior beyond the broadcast depiction of the events in question.

NBC countered that **To Catch a Predator** was a privileged media report that was "substantially true," which the judge accepted even though Tiwari was never convicted of a felony. The objection that NBC's broadcast was protected by the First Amendment, however, allowed them to avoid Tiwari's claim that he was defamed by the show's suggestion that he was involved in commiting a felony. The judge granted NBC's request to dismiss Tiwari's defamation claim based on the show's epilogue. Given what they had seen in the broadcast, he determined that "the epilogue taken in context is substantially true" and would do little to change the public's perception of Tiwari's actions. It is not known what happened afterwards, but it is assumed the lawsuit was likely settled out of court.

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 https://casetext.com/case/tiwari-v-nbc-universal-7
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/business-news/to-catch-predator-lawsuit-nbc-defend-255218/
3. ↑ http://www.perverted-justice.com/?con=indianman76
4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 https://www.courthousenews.com/nbc-isnt-off-the-hook-for-trap-on-predator/#:~:text=Anurag%20Tiwari%20was%20busted%20by,.%2C%20north%20of%20San%20Francisco.
5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 https://www.thewrap.com/catch-predator-lawsuit-oked-judge-32252/
6. ↑ Cite error: Invalid `<ref>` tag; no text was provided for refs named `:2`