Roberto Forte

Forte's Riverside mugshot

**Roberto Erto Forte** was an unaired predator featured in the Riverside, California edition of **To Catch a Predator**. He is notable for being the only Italian national caught on the show.

## Biography

Forte was a married man with children who managed a restaurant in Tustin, California before it closed. This left Forte unemployed. Forte was consindered a "fast mover". Over the course of 49 minutes in January 2006, Forte began chatting with someone he thought was a 13-year-old boy named Luke. Forte asked the decoy if he had ever been with men before. Luke remarked that he had been with a man of at least 30 and that it had hurt a lot, to which Forte remarked that he was doing fine and simply needed to "relax the muscle first." He asked the child for images and sent some of his own while describing the boy as "hot."

After chatting, Forte immediately travelled for 49 minutes to the sting house in Mira Loma, Riverside, California. He acknowledged not having any condoms and not having brought any, but he had alcohol, lubrication, and a camera. He was approached by Chris Hansen after being drawn in by Del Harvey, who was pretending to be the boy, and confessed that what he did was "stupid," that he "deserved to be humiliated," and that there was only "one thing to think." He acknowledged having a camera and alcohol with him, but he made an effort to deny using them in any way to interact with a child. Unlike many other suspects, Forte didn't try to blame the boy, claiming he was the adult and, even if the decoy kept calling him to make sure he was coming, he should've known better and turned not come to the sting house. When Chris reveals who he is and that the conversation is being recorded, Forte becomes defensive.

Forte did not attempt to flee, but he did make an argument that it was "wrong" for Dateline to broadcast him, supposedly out of concern that his family may see him on the news. Chris sidestepped the topic and gave him a business card while pointing out that Forte was the one who came to the house, obviously prepared to have sex with a child when he asked if they would reveal his "face and everything." His full interview with Chris Hansen wouldn't air until it was released as bonus content, but him revealing his camera at the kitchen counter and what happened after he left the house was briefly covered. After walking out of the house, he is arrested by police. When asked if he had ever had sex with guys, he replied, "it happens," in accordance with what he had previously told Chris Hansen about meeting men online for sex but "never minors."  He would become concerned about his wife learning that he was bisexual.

## Aftermath and death

Forte was charged with two felonies: attempted lewd or lascivious acts with a child under 14 years of age and attempted oral copulation with a minor under 14 years of age and more than a 10-year age difference between victim and offender, both felonies. His bail was set at $25,000. Forte ended up pleading guilty to both felony charges and was the first man sentenced in the Riverside sting. On June 17, 2006, Forte was sentenced to two and a half years in prison with lifetime registration as a sex offender. The judge denied Forte's request for probation because he had previously been under investigation for having child pornography in his possession and because he had spent less than 90 minutes online before entering a child's house with lube, booze, and a camera. Forte was released between late 2007 and early 2008 after serving the majority of his sentence. After his run-in with the law in the child porn case, his children, who were adults at the time of his arrest, no longer wanted anything to do with him. Forte later died on November 14, 2009, at the age of 57 from unknown causes.

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 https://dairystatedegenerates.blogspot.com/2021/08/the-vinny-barbarinos-grandpa-predator.html
2. ↑ http://www.perverted-justice.com/booking/bookingcollage.html
3. ↑ https://dokich.blogspot.com/search?q=roberto
4. ↑ http://www.perverted-justice.com/index.php?pg=2006jun