Berkeley Police Arrest a Man Accused of Coercing a 13-Year-Old Girl He Met Online
Raymond Allen Pearce was arrested near UC Berkeley and charged Friday with contacting a minor with the intent to commit a sex crime, extortion and other counts, police said. A parent reported the case on Oct. 12. The charges are allegations.
By the Bay Area Brief staff · Edited by Seamus McKenna · · 3 min read
Palm trees and sunshine at Jack London Square in Oakland. Photo: Niranjan Arminius / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped, resized and color-graded). Archive photo of the area; not a photo of the events in this story.
Berkeley police arrested a man they say coerced a 13-year-old girl into sending him explicit images after meeting her online, Berkeleyside reported.
A Berkeley parent contacted authorities on Oct. 12. Police, in a prepared statement Friday, said that despite being told the girl was 13, the suspect continued demanding images and threatened to expose pictures she had already sent if she refused, and also demanded to know her home address. Police said they found and arrested Raymond Allen Pearce in the Southside area near UC Berkeley on Wednesday. The Alameda County District Attorney's Office charged him Friday with contacting a minor with the intent to commit a sex crime, extortion, coercing a minor to perform sex acts, possession of child sexual abuse material and annoying a minor, police said. The charges are allegations that have not been proven in court.
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