Former officer will stand trial in sex case
Arthur Crabtree is alleged to have arranged meetings with agents posing as 13-year-old girls.SAN FERNANDO -- A Superior Court Judge ruled Wednesday that a former Glendale Police officer accused of soliciting a date online from an undercover law-enforcement agent posing as a 13-year-old girl will stand trial, court officials said.
Judge Alice C. Hill ruled that the case against Arthur Crabtree, who was charged in February with one felony county of attempted lewd acts on a child, three felony counts of attempting to send harmful matter over the Internet, four misdemeanor counts of attempted child molestation and one misdemeanor count of child molestation, should go to trial.
Crabtree, 43, of Santa Clarita -- now a lawyer, specializing in family law -- sent a bus ticket in January to an undercover agent posing as a 13-year-old girl and arranged a rendezvous at the Greyhound bus station in downtown Los Angeles, Deputy Dist. Atty. Tannaz Mokayef said. Los Angeles County Sheriff’s deputies arrested Crabtree at the station.
He allegedly preyed on several other undercover agents posing as five different victims during the past three years, according to the complaint filed by the district attorney’s office.
Sexual Assault Felony Enforcement, a multi-agency task force that targets online sexual predators, ran the undercover sting.
Crabtree has been out on $100,000 bond since his initial arrest.
During the second and final day of Crabtree’s preliminary hearing Wednesday, defense attorney Patrick E. Clancy argued that in many of the instances in which Crabtree tried to illicit meetings with the undercover agents posing as 13- and 14-year-old-girls, he never clearly stated that he wanted to meet with the girls to have sex with them.
“You don’t want to meet if you don’t have a clear intention of sex, right?” Clancy asked one of the FBI agents, who posed as two different underage girls and engaged in many conversations with Crabtree in 2001 and 2002.
The agent, who testified he probably had more than 40 hour-long chat sessions with Crabtree, agreed he was never able to set up a meeting with Crabtree because he could not illicit a clear answer of meeting with the intention of having sex.
But Mokayef argued that the intentions of sex were there.
Crabtree sent over a picture of his genitalia to the agent posing as a teenage girl, discussed going to a spa and his “hand wandering under the bubbles,” talked about how he liked young girls, suggested fondling her nipples and other sexual acts.
“Don’t you characterize that as sexual intent in your profession?” Mokayef said, to which the agent agreed.
A second witness, San Jose Police Officer Adam Tovar, also testified that Crabtree made sexually explicit remarks online to people he thought were underage girls.
Tovar, who also posed as a 13-year-old girl, said Crabtree told him of a time when his then 14-year-old sister-in-law masturbated him, flashed him, gave him oral sex and he “penetrated her.”
Crabtree also explained to Tovar that he would be gentle with her if given the chance, Tovar said.
A third witness, FBI agent Michael Osborn testified that the day Crabtree was arrested, agents found several condoms, a vibrator, a bottle of prescription Viagra, bath wash and a bikini in the trunk of his car.
“It was a very petite swim suit,” Osborn said.
Crabtree, who worked for the Glendale Police Department for more than 15 years, left the force on Feb. 29, 2000, Glendale Police Sgt. Tom Lorenz said, and is married to a Glendale Police sergeant.
“He was a police officer with the department, however, he separated with the department in 2000 and we have no comment in regards to his personal affairs at this time,” Lorenz said.
Crabtree will return to court Feb. 8 for an arraignment.
* TANIA CHATILA covers public safety and courts. She may be reached at (818) 637-3232 or by e-mail at tania.chatila@
latimes.com.