September 9, 2005

DILLON ANNOUNCES:

GUILTY PLEA OF JERICHO ATTORNEY ACCUSED OF BEING AN ONLINE PREDATOR

Nassau County District Attorney Denis Dillon announced today that Jan Kabas, 53, of 144 Foxwood Drive, Jericho has pled guilty to the top count of Attempted Disseminating Indecent Material to Minors in the First Degree, a Class E Felony. Kabas was arrested on August 25, 2005 by the DA’s Technology Crime Unit. Kabas, a real estate attorney in Jericho, had sexual explicit conversations with a person who he believed was a 13 year old female. In addition, Kabas agreed to meet the ‘13 year old female’ for the purposes of engaging in sexual activity.

According to Dillon, "Kabas, while using the AOL screen name ‘Specimen29', visited chatrooms where he encountered an undercover investigator from the Long Island Chapter of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (LISPCC) who was acting in an undercover capacity as a 13-year-old female. During July and August of this year, Kabas engaged in multiple sexually explicit conversations with this undercover investigator. During the course a month and a half, Kabas sent a photograph of himself to the undercover investigator, inquired about the undercover’s sexual experiences, requested a picture of the undercover, and spoke about sexual acts he wanted to perform with the undercover. "

"At least one of the sexually explicit conversations that Kabas had with the undercover were done from his Jericho law office," Dillon continued. "Kabas, who ran his own law practice, was observed by one of my Investigators sitting at his office computer having one of the sexually explicit conversations with the undercover. Kabas who was pressing to meet the ‘13 year old female’ arranged to meet the undercover at 11:00 a.m. on August 24th at an undisclosed location. Kabas did not show up to the morning meeting but then notified the undercover that he was delayed in court and that he would meet ‘her’ at 3:00p.m. that same day. Kabas arrived at the meet location at 3:00p.m. in his Jaguar S Type vehicle, where he was apprehended by my investigators."

Kabas faces up to four (4) years in prison and will be sentenced on November 14, 2005 by Acting Nassau County Court Judge Christopher Quinn.

"I would like to thank the Long Island Chapter of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children for their hard work during the course of this investigation and for referring the matter to my Technology Crime Unit’s Operation Teensaver Program," said Dillon.

"Criminality such as this will not be tolerated by my office," said Dillon. "Matters such as this are a priority of my office and that is why I created the Operation Teensaver Program four years ago. With the help of the Long Island Chapter of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, we have successfully intercepted a would-be predator before he was able to make contact with a vulnerable minor. Since we began Operation Teensaver, we have made 22 arrests. Those who prowl the Internet in search of young victims should take this conviction as a stern warning: Either stop your predatory behavior, or we will aggressively search you out and stop you before you can harm our children."