Jeff Sokol

"*You want a slice?*"
―Sokol, offering a slice of pizza to Chris Hansen.
**Jeffrey Ben Sokol** is a suspected predator caught in the Fairfield, Connecticut sting. He is notable for *really* liking pizza and his narcissistic attitude during the bust and arrest.

## Biography

Before getting caught in the sting, Jeffrey Ben Sokol had been divorced for 10 years and was obsessed with sports, becoming depressed after not being able to find a job in sports management. He remained working as an insurance auditor despite it being an entry-level job that only had an annual salary of $40,000 dollars.

44-year-old Jeff Sokol groomed what he thought was a thirteen year old girl named Bailey online. He had many creepy and sexual conversations with her. This included encouraging her to masturbate, asking her if she trims her pubic hair, telling her that he will want to be intimate with her when they meet, and talks of drawing up a fraudulent marriage contract in order to trick her into believing it would be legal for him to have sex with her. In the chatlog, Jeff expresses extreme interest in penises and the correlation of penis size to his evaluation of "manhood". At one point Bailey is trying to discuss her love of dance with Jeff, but he states that male ballet dancers probably do not have penises - as though to imply that they are not actually men - thus managing to demean both women and the art of ballet with a penis reference that no one was asking for. Later in the chat, Bailey is opening up to Jeff about issues she is having with fitting in to her peer-group at school, Jeff veers the conversation into one about penis size and implies that men with relatively small penises are not actually "real men"; he then immediately, awkwardly and very bizarrely confides in her that he has a small but sexually efficient penis.

## Bust

On October 3, 2015, Sokol drove for two-and-a-half hours from his home in Boston to Fairfield, where he had planned to stay with the girl while her mother was away on business. With pizza, vodka, and an Ocean Spray orange juice container, Jeff arrived at Fairfield. Sokol attempted to hug the decoy when he entered the sting home, holding out his arms. He was promptly shunned by the decoy, causing her to quickly put more distance between them. Sokol clarified that he ordered a small pizza because the large one was nearly the same size. Sokol continued by saying that although he had previously met girls online, he had never gone very far to see one. As the two carried on talking, Sokol pulled a pill from a medicine container and claimed he had to take it before he ate.

A door can be heard creaking in a hidden room, which startled Sokol. When Nellie left to "investigate," Chris Hansen entered, asking what kind of pizza Sokol brought. Sokol immediately enquired about Hansen. Sokol insisted Hansen identify himself while making the excuse that he was just "hanging out." Sokol requested permission to begin eating his pizza after Hansen stated that he wanted to learn more about him. Sokol insisted that he had "no expectations." Sokol then sighed and asked Hansen if he was the girl's father.  As Sokol consumed his pizza, he haughtily asserted that since he had only come to "meet" the girl, he hadn't "done anything wrong." Hansen questioned if he had a marriage contract with him, and Sokol laughed and ate more pizza. Sokol continued to laugh and act egotistically as Chris read from the chat log. Sokol said he was getting nervous and requested Hansen to identify himself once more. After that, he claimed he had just come to "hang out" and had not brought condoms. He brazenly asked if meeting a girl was "against the law." He then stated that he was "pretty apprehensive about the whole sex thing." Sokol then assumed Hansen was a member of the police, and claimed while driving to the sting house, he thought to himself that he wasn't "gonna risk it."

Once more, Sokol said he wanted to see how she was and that he had never met a girl that age. Sokol said while driving down that he had decided he wouldn't have sex with the girl unless it was legal as he continued to consume his pizza. The marriage document was then brought up once more by Hansen, who mentioned that Sokol brought it so he could marry her. Sokol said in a cocky attitude that he wouldn't marry her "not in two seconds."  He claimed that he was "just throwing things out" and said that if it worked out, he would be willing to marry a 13-year-old girl. After Sokol asked Hansen if he seemed like a "dirty, dishonest person," Hansen pointed out that his chat was. Sokol haughtily said that "chat is chat." Sokol asserted that he did that to everyone he had encountered when Hansen brought up the fact that he arrived and asked for a hug right away. Sokol continued, saying he was "trying to be polite," and asked Hansen to identify himself again. This prompts Hansen to eventually reveal himself, which prompted the cameras to emerge. Sokol asserted that he hadn't brought a marriage contract. Then he decided not to respond to any more inquiries. Sokol offered Hansen a slice of pizza before departing, but Hansen politely refused. Sokol left through the garage and was arrested by police.

## Police interview

Sokol insisted he would not have sex with the girl during his police interrogation.  Sokol said the girl seemed like she was "mature" and "fun to hang out with." He acknowledged that he and his wife had divorced each other. He asserted that he had never met a teenage girl who was underage. Sokol contended that the marriage contract was a "joke" and that it was all talk when the detective inquired about it. When the investigator noted that the girl was 12, Sokol responded that she had told him she was 14. Sokol claimed that the age gap between 12 and 14 wasn't significant . The investigator pointed out that neither age was old enough to consent to sex. Sokol asked if it was against the law to hang out with a girl as he proceeded to act haughtily. He said while they talked about sex, he wasn't going do it in real life. He then stated he would be willing to have sex with the girl when she turned 16. Sokol acknowledged that he was researching the laws regarding sex crimes against minors because he was meeting one himself. Sokol claimed to the investigator that he had expressed to the decoy he was "aware" and "scared" of the repercussions of having sex with her. He claimed he would just hang out with her and go home rather than taking the chance of having intercourse with her. Sokol became irritated and informed the detective that the decoy was not twelve years old when he brought up the subject once more. Sokol questioned why they didn't wait for him to initiate sexual contact with the decoy in order to demonstrate his purpose. The investigator expressed his disgust over this and stated that he did not want to place the girl in any danger. Sokol  persisted in saying that he wanted to have a conversation with the girl and share a pizza. After conducting further investigation, the investigator informed Sokol that the pills he had brought were indeed Cialis pills.

Sokol asserted that he brought them because his vehicle always contained them. He insisted that during the chats, he had expressed his fear of meeting the girl. Sokol claimed that he did nothing wrong. Even more repulsed, the investigator advised Sokol to look for help if he believed that grooming a kid for sex was common. Sokol then questioned why he had been arrested if the girl had not been sexually assaulted by him. The investigator clarified that they wouldn't allow him to hurt the decoy. Sokol then placed the blame on society, claiming that everyone believes that males are "pigs" who only care about having sex. Sokol justified his conversation with a teenage girl by saying that sex "is a part of life" and shouldn't be viewed negatively. The decoy, according to Sokol, appeared "smart" and "mature." As the investigator was looking through Sokol's phone, he found that he and the decoy talked about the marriage contract the day they were supposed to meet. The investigator became even more outraged at this point and demanded Sokol to tell the truth. As part of his arrogant demeanor, Sokol also stated that he would take a lie detector test and show to the court that he had no intention of having sex with the girl. The detective mentioned how Sokol appeared proud when he spoke about the marriage contact and he had wanting to have the mother's consent in order to have sex with the child without being sent to prison. Sokol claimed to have "learned his lesson" and to have had "good" motives.  He reiterated that unless it was legal, he wouldn't have sex with the girl. Sokol claimed that he was "scared shitless" and that his arrogant demeanor was a hallmark of his character. The interview was ended by the investigator because he was unable to handle Sokol's lies and haughty demeanor.

## Legal Battles

Sokol was originally charged with three felony counts: criminal attempted first degree sexual assault, attempted risk of injury to a minor, and enticing a minor in an obscene performance.

### Testimony

Sokol declared that his friends and family had continued to support him. He said he had volunteered at the fire station and an aquarium. He added that he played tennis and performed martial arts. He claimed to the judge that he was trying to "lighten" the situation by "making a joke" when he was being arrogant with Hansen in order to alleviate his stress. Then he asserted that he had undergone a forensic examination that had been expertly assessed and found him to be normal. Sokol said that being exposed on national television was "stressful" and "embarrassing." Sokol's attorney, Norman Pattis, mentioned that his client had two previous attorneys. He said Sokol had "deep goodness" and was "profound." He then unbelievably said that the age of consent in the United States was usually nine to 13 years old back then, but changed due to young children being taken advantage of. He asserted that it was offense for the state to say that his client had been arranging a rendezvous to sexually assault a minor for days. He continued by asserting that Sokol had a minimal risk of reoffending because he had a penile plethysmograph and had no sexual desires for kids.

Pattis made an effort to describe how Sokol had to "mask" his learning challenges. Pattis claimed that Sokol attended Springfield College but dropped out after struggling. After enrolling at Umass Amherst, he graduated with a degree in sports management, but he was still unhappy because he had not discovered true love. Pattis claimed that Sokol has minor psychiatric problems, such as obsessive compulsive disorder, and learning disabilities, but not significant psychiatric problems like schizophrenia. Pattis emphasized that the medication Sokol consumed while in the sting house was a cholestyramine pill used to treat irritable bowel syndrome rather than a sexual enhancer. Then Pattis claimed that because Sokol had Inflammatory Bowel Syndrome, it had caused him to wear a "mask" since high school. He foolishly stated that Sokol "broke the law by engaging in conduct that wouldn't have been a crime a century ago." Sokol attributed his decision to go to the sting home to the girl having paid him "lots of attention" and having "loneliness" as well. The judge was unimpressed, saying that Sokol would have harmed a real child if one had been present.

### Sentence

In March 2017, Judge Robert Devlin sentenced Sokol to seven years in prison suspended after serving two and a half years and ten years of probation for a downgraded charge of attempted second degree sexual assault charge; for the charge of attempted risk of injury to a minor, Sokol was sentenced to an additional two and a half years to be served concurrently; and for the enticing a minor in an obscene performance charge, Sokol was sentenced to another concurrent sentence of two and a half years. Judge Devlin also required Sokol to register as a sex offender for ten years and pay a $151 dollar fine.

## Further Activity

On November 6, 2017, Sokol disobeyed a direct order from a prison guard and was punished with "loss of recreation" for 15 days.  In July 2018, Sokol tried to change his legal name to Sonny Derek Porter, but his request was eventually denied. The affidavit for his name change can be found online. Sokol was denied parole in 2018 and had to wait until June 2019 to be released from prison. He has to be on probation through 2024 and remain registered as a sex offender until 2029. Sokol has kept a low profile since his release from prison, with the last publicly available photograph of him taken in early 2021. He is said to have sold his apartment and moved back in with his affluent parents.

## Gallery

Name Change Document (1/3)Name Change Document (2/3)Name Change Document (3/3)
## Trivia

* Chris Hansen revealed that it was the idea of his son Chase to suggest to Sokol that he should bring a pizza from Planet Pizza. Chase was working as a camera operator for the Hansen vs Predator investigations at the time.
* Hansen says in a post-production interview that Sokol offering him a slice of pizza was the first time anyone has done that. However, he was offered boxes of pizza by Gregory Stewart in the Ocean County, New Jersey edition of *To Catch a Predator*.
* Sokol released some music and has been recorded performing live at music events.

## Related Links

* Original CrimeWatch Daily Cut
* "The HvP Cut"
* Police Interrogation [Mirror]
* Decoy Phone Conversation
* Chatlog:
	+ Original PDF [Mirror]
	+ Plain Text Transcription

## References

1. ↑ https://www.reddit.com/r/FansHansenvsPredator/comments/lw92e0/ama\_on\_jeff\_sokol/
2. ↑ https://drive.google.com/file/d/1zDjxhk16UoRXqMVA-BuifX8keDWgxFLB/view
3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 https://drive.google.com/file/d/1DlCGj9iCu6oEwepzd3ytZ-ucIhBxhylt/view
4. ↑ https://drive.google.com/file/d/1D7rVr4\_ESgTzwtKa9dF8cAnGi2AS\_uUG/view?usp=sharing
5. ↑ https://www.reddit.com/r/FansHansenvsPredator/comments/y2cf4g/man\_the\_predator\_i\_hate\_the\_most\_is\_jeff\_sokol/
6. ↑ https://dairystatedegenerates.blogspot.com/2021/06/to-catch-predator-update-fairfield.html