Spencer Cho

**Spencer Cho** is a suspected predator featured in the Riverside, California edition of To Catch a Predator.

## Chat

27-year-old Spencer Cho started an internet chat with a Perverted Justice decoy who was posing as a 13-year-old girl. Cho lied about his age, claiming to be 21. Cho was considered a "fast mover" because within seconds, he questioned what the decoy was wearing and whether or not she was searching for a boyfriend. Then, he inquired as to her virginity and whether she had ever witnessed genitalia. Cho continued by asking if she had ever experimented with any sex positions. The decoy responded that she was unaware of any, and Cho then went on to describe in explicit detail the various sexual positions he was familiar with.

Cho proposed that the decoy engage in sexual activity after hearing her confess that she had never done so and offered to show her how. According to Cho, when he "eat[s] a girl out," he drives her "crazy." He made it clear that he wanted the decoy to engage in oral sex with him. Cho warned the decoy that their first encounter with sex would be painful. Cho voiced concern, saying that he would face severe repercussions if it were discovered that a grown man was hanging out with a child. He also asked the decoy if she was a cop.  He acknowledged that he had heard of police posing as children to capture sexual predators looking for kids online. His anxiety, however, vanished as he arranged a meeting with the decoy.

## Aftermath

Cho never got an interview with Chris Hansen as when Cho pulled up to the sting house in his vehicle, a second predator was walking down the sidewalk, while another predator was already inside the sting house. Lieutenant Chad Bianco was able to identify Cho from the images he sent to the decoy and because the car Cho was driving fit the vehicle's description that he had also sent to the decoy. Cho was originally spoken to by Lieutenant Bianco while he was in his car because of the two other predators that were nearby. Then he was arrested without delay. When searching Cho, Riverside County Sheriff Investigator Johnson discovered a singular, unopened condom packet in his pocket. Investigator Johnson also discovered two items in Cho's front passenger compartment: a condom box with two unopened condom packets, and a Google.com map with instructions to the sting house.

### Legal process

Cho was originally charged with three felonies: attempted lewd or lascivious acts with a child under 14 years of age, attempted oral copulation with a minor under 14 years of age and more than a 10 year age difference between victim and offender, and attempted digital penetration with a child under 14 years of age. The court set his bail at $50,000 dollars.

Cho's attorney, Ronald Richards, requested that the charges against his client be dropped during a pretrial hearing in Riverside County Superior Court on September 21, 2007, on the grounds that he was arrested while in his vehicle and had not attempted to enter the sting house. Richards added, "The sting was never set up to get people in their cars." Richards' motion for dismissal was refused by Judge Jean P. Leonard, who ruled that there was probable cause for Cho's arrest. Cho attempted to battle his case for nearly five years before ultimately entering a guilty plea in the summer of 2009 during a jury trial. In exchange for pleading guilty to one felony count of attempted lewd or lascivious acts with a child under 14 years of age, his other two felony charges were dropped. Cho was sentenced to 180 days in county jail to be served on weekends, three year of probation, was ordered to register as a sex offender, and had to pay a significant fines and restitutions.

### Appeal

In November 2010, Cho filed an appeal arguing that the evidence used to back up his conviction did not meet the standard for substantial proof. The focus of Cho's defense was the attempt part of a direct but futile action taken to perform the crime. In addition, he claimed that there was insufficient evidence to support his conviction because he never got out of his vehicle, and that the trial court failed in rejecting his request to have the transcript of the online conversation between him and the decoy be suppressed. The appeals court ultimately affirmed his sentence.

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 https://casetext.com/case/people-v-cho-34
2. ↑ http://www.perverted-justice.com/booking/bookingcollage.html
3. ↑ https://willdefendwa.com/to-catch-a-predator-sex-stings-net-mixed-results/
4. ↑ http://www.perverted-justice.com/?con=caspersc78