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MRS FLYIN VEE
09-01-2007, 02:12 PM
INDIO, Calif. -- A Palm Springs police detective testified Friday that former Coachella Valley news anchor Jim Philbrick admitted that he was involved in online chats and sent pictures to someone he met online.
But the detective and another officer also testified that when they tried to get Philbrick to meet a decoy meant to look like a minor, Philbrick drove by and did not stop, prompting a defense attorney to comment that "there's no such thing as a drive-by sex crime."
The testimony came during a preliminary hearing to determine whether Philbrick, 44, should be tried on charges of attempted lewd acts on a child under 14 and attempting to distribute harmful matter to a minor with the intent to arouse or seduce.
The former anchor for NBC affiliate KMIR-TV and CBS affiliate KPSP-TV, who is openly gay, claims he thought he was chatting with an adult pretending to be a child and denies the charges.
Philbrick was arrested in a sting conducted by a child predator watchdog group Perverted Justice and the Palm Springs Police Department in March 2006.
Perverted Justice uses adults pretending to be children to lure suspected pedophiles into compromising situations and arranges for television cameras to videotape their arrests. The Fox television show "COPS" was also involved in the sting.
After three days of online chatting with a Perverted Justice decoy, on March 22, 2006, Philbrick agreed to meet the decoy at the Palm Springs Tennis Center on East Baristo Road, and police used a youthful-looking recruit to pretend to be a teenager.
Police officers and a production crew from "COPS" staked out the tennis center and saw Philbrick drive up in his white Lexus. But he left without getting out of his car after seeing what looked like a minor, authorities said.
Detective Michael Kovaleff was one of the officers who arrested Philbrick about 20 minutes later during a traffic stop that was subsequently shown on "COPS."
Kovaleff testified that when Philbrick was stopped by police, officers told him they pulled him over because he was speeding and because he matched the America Online profile of someone suspected of attempting to commit lewd acts on a child.
He said that Philbrick admitted to chatting online with someone whose screen name was "LBninja92," which was the name the decoy used online, and that he never said anything about roleplaying.
Philbrick also admitted e-mailing two pictures to LBninja92 but would not describe the pictures, Kovaleff said.
Prosecutors allege the pictures were of his erection.
The detective also testified that Philbrick admitted to making a "mistake" and repeatedly asked to be let off with a warning.
During cross-examination by Philbrick's lawyer, John Patrick Dolan, Kovaleff was shown the "COPS" videotape and confirmed that Philbrick did not stop his car when he saw the decoy.
He also said he could not be certain that copies of the pictures and e-mails provided to authorities by Perverted Justice had not been altered. However, he said they did match information gleaned from Philbrick's computer.
Dolan noted that the decoy's hard drive has never been provided to the defense and may have been lost.
He contends some of the e-mails and instant messages between Philbrick and the decoy were modified and has filed motions asking that the chat logs be suppressed.
A second Palm Springs police officer, Sgt. Matthew Beard, testified briefly that while hiding in bushes near the tennis center with the "COPS" production crew that he saw Philbrick drive by in his Lexus, turn around and come back to the parking lot, but that he never stopped for the decoy.
He was also shown a segment of the "COPS" videotape and confirmed that Philbrick did not stop for the decoy.
Outside court, Dolan asserted there was not enough evidence to try his client.
"I established beyond any doubt today that Jim Philbrick never made direct contact with the person he's alleged to have attempted to have made a lewd act with," he said. "I showed both officers video which they could not deny. There's no such thing as a drive-by sex crime."
Philbrick said outside court that when he asked the officer for a warning, that he meant a warning not to role in chat rooms.
He maintained that he was in a chat room for gay adults ages 30 to 65 and did not feel he had done anything illegal.
"When I said, `Hey, give me a warning,' I was referring to role-playing, a silly game," he said.
The preliminary hearing began June 26 but was postponed until July 6, then broke off again and was scheduled to resume Aug. 10, but that session was postponed until Friday. The preliminary hearing is to resume again Sept. 14