October 14, 2005

DILLON ANNOUNCES:

ARREST OF ELMONT MAN ACCUSED OF BEING AN ONLINE PREDATOR

Nassau County District Attorney Denis Dillon announced today that the DA’s Technology Crime Unit arrested Abner Melendez, 34, of 287 Meacham Avenue, Elmont on Wednesday, October 12th at approximately 4:30 p.m.. Melendez is accused of having sexual explicit conversations with a person who he believed was a 14 year old female. In addition, Melendez is accused of agreeing to meet the "14 year old female" for the purposes of engaging in sexual activity.

According to Dillon, "Melendez, while using the AOL screen name ‘ABsterPR,’ visited chatrooms where he encountered an undercover investigator from my office who was acting in an undercover capacity as a 14 year old female. During September and October, Melendez engaged in multiple sexually explicit conversations with this undercover investigator, inquired about the undercover’s sexual experiences, and spoke about sexual acts he wanted to perform with the undercover. He also sent an explicit sexual photograph of himself to the undercover."

After numerous online conversations with the undercover, Melendez sought to meet the 14 year old girl to engage in sexual activity. Melendez was arrested Wednesday afternoon at an undisclosed location when he arrived at the meet location.

Melendez has been charged with 6 counts of Attempted Disseminating Indecent Material to Minors in the First Degree, a Class E Felony, punishable by up to 4 years in prison. Melendez was arraigned yesterday in First District Court in Hempstead and was released on $10,000/$5,000 bail. The case was adjourned until October 17, 2005, in Part 9 for conference. A search warrant was executed at this Elmont residence upon his arrest, and we are continuing our investigation.

"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. We have again 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 23 arrests. Those who prowl the Internet in search of young victims should take this arrest 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."

The charges are merely accusations, and the defendant is presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty.