title: Joseph Roisman
text: Joseph Louis Roisman (May 18, 1985) is an American former sailor for the Navy. Roisman was arrested in August 2006 after getting caught on Dateline NBC To Catch a Predator for trying to have sex with someone who he thought was a 13-year-old girl. His charges were dropped after the judge found that the prosecution failed to show that he intended to have sex with the decoy and accused NBC and Perverted Justice of entrapment.
  
  Background
  Prior to getting caught, Joseph Roisman was enlisted in the Navy as a sailor. In August 2006, 21-year-old Roisman was caught during a Perverted Justice child predator sting operation when he set up a meeting with a person he thought was a 13-year-old girl. Roisman asked about the oldest person she had sex with and recommended they "cut up some fruit and eat it off each other." He also mentioned the size of his genitalia. The decoy then tells Roisman that her mother won't be back until in town until Monday and gives him her address. A visit is accepted by Roisman. 
  
  From Santa Cruz, Roisman boarded a Greyhound bus and arrived at a house in Petaluma, California, after traveling 110 miles. Upon entering the backyard, he took off his shirt. Chris Hansen, host of To Catch a Predator, confronts him. After having a brief talk with Hansen and Dateline NBC cameras that approached him, Roisman was arrested by Petaluma police. After his arrest, a search of Roisman's backpack revealed a bus ticket, a written note with instructions to the sting house, and a business card for a cab service in Sonoma County. According to a detective who spoke with Roisman, he acknowledged knowing the girl he was going to meet was 13 years old. Additionally, he told the detective that she appeared to be 13 in her online profile photo.
  
  Trial
  After his arrest, Roisman was kicked out of the Navy and spent a year in jail. Roisman was charged with attempting lewd and lascivious acts on a child under 14. He pleaded not guilty and requested a jury trial.  At his preliminary hearing, detectives stated that Roisman started talking online with a Wisconsin-based volunteer for Perverted Justice. As she sounded significantly older, Roisman's attorney, Stephen Turer, denied that  Roisman thought the was underage, mentioning she sounded older. Turer claimed that when Roisman questioned the decoy in a chat room for adults, she remained silent, proving to Roisman that she was actually older. According to Turer, the sting was unfair and relates to some form of support or grooming on the part of the police. 29 arrests resulted from the Dateline sting. Without a sex crime trial, 28 defendants entered guilty pleas. Out of the 29, only Roisman's case actually went to trial. 
  
  After six days of testimony, Turer said that Roisman had just intended to "cuddle and watch movies" and that his online discussions with her were innocent. The conversation was directed toward sex, according to Turer, by Perverted Justice officials. Despite being informed of the girl's age, Roisman was suspicious due to her "sophisticated" speech and "mature-sounding" voice. The chatlog made it become "obvious that they had an agenda that they professionally moved along," according to Roisman's attorney, who also revealed that Dateline NBC funded Perverted Justice $100,000 per episode to gives actors who talked on the phone and originally met the accused in a place with cameras that were hidden.  Five years after the sting, Judge Arthur Wick dismissed the charges in the middle of the trial, stating that due to the prosecution's inability to show that Roisman intended to have sex with the decoy. In addition, the judge accused NBC and Perverted Justice with entrapment and said they lacked credibility. Judge Wick said, "The axiom actions speak louder than words clearly does not apply in this case."
  
  Aftermath
  After Roisman was acquitted Turer said, "they took everything away from this kid just to make a TV show." The jury expressed frustration with Perverted Justice's strategies. One of the jurors claimed that they forced Roisman to behave as he did. If the matter had gone before a jury, she claimed she would have found him not guilty. After leaving the courtroom, Roisman said he was "ready to move on with my life" and expressed hope that the Navy would reenlist him. Deborah Roisman, his mother, said that she and her husband spent over $100,000 protecting their son. She pledged to file a lawsuit against NBC and referred to the sting as a "huge waste" of tax dollars. Roisman's mother stated, "They made my son’s life a living hell for five years." 
  
  Roisman was once more arrested in January 2013 after his neighbor, a 50-year-old woman, complained that he exposed himself to her before making an inappropriate sexual approach. When the woman objected, Roisman stopped, and she later reported it. After being arrested, Roisman was charged with indecent exposure and assault with the intent to rape. His bail was set at $25,000. Later in May 2013, Roisman was arrested once more and charged with possession of a stolen vehicle and possession of controlled substance/ paraphernalia.
  
  References
  
  Living people
  1985 births
  Sailors