DUBLIN — A Hayward man has been arrested and charged after allegedly arranging a sexual meetup with a cop who’d been posing as a 13-year-old boy online.
Ralphjoab Lucasia, 31, was charged with a single felony count of arranging to meet a minor for sexual purposes. He has since been released from jail after posting $50,000 bail, court records show.
Police say an undercover Dublin police officer created a dating application profile of a 13-year-old boy, and that Lucasia reached out to him with the prompt, “Hey bro.” Ironically, Lucasia allegedly sent this message just a half-mile from the Dublin police station, where the undercover officer was working.
As their chats progressed, police say Lucasia offered to “be your first if u want lol,” referring to sexual contact. He allegedly arranged for them to meet at a Dublin hotel on Regional Street. During the chats, Lucasia allegedly purported to be 25 but is actually 31, police said.
Lucasia was arrested on Jan. 5 after showing up to the hotel, and later admitted he was aware of the fictitious 13-year-old boy’s age, according to Dublin police. His next court date has been set for Feb. 28.
The terms of Lucasia’a pretrial release include a court order that he not have unsupervised contact with minors.
Source: www.mercurynews.com