Last fall, the Shawano County Sheriff’s Department initiated a program dubbed Operation Guardian Angel, which was modeled on similar statewide programs called Black Veil and Black Veil II.
It involved investigators posing as children on the Internet who were then contacted by parties looking to have sexual encounters. The suspects were arrested when they showed up for the rendezvous.
Guardian Angel resulted in two people being arrested for facilitating a child sex crime and one for prostitution. One juvenile was referred for distribution of child pornography.
Shawano County’s operation ran from October through January. Officials were planning one more weekend of Guardian Angel when they learned Brown County authorities were spearheading another Internet sting operation that would cast its net in a wider area of northeast Wisconsin.
Shawano County folded its last weekend of Guardian Angel into Brown County’s Operation Vanguard, said Shawano County Detective Sgt. Gordon Kowaleski, who was one of the investigators posing as a child during the three-day effort.
“One of the most difficult things I’ve ever done was to sit at the computer this weekend and pretend to be a 15-year-old,” Kowaleski said. “And I’ve got to ask other officers, ‘All right, what are they watching on TV? What (texting) symbols do they use; what abbreviations do they use?’”
Once investigators have a potential suspect on the line, their case against them will first hinge on proving the suspect used a computerized communication system to make contact.
“It could be a Smartphone or even a simple flip phone because even a simple flip phone will go over the public network, and that’s all computerized,” Kowaleski said. “In essence, any time you use a phone, it’s a computerized communication system.”
Next, authorities need to be able to prove the suspect knew — or believed — he was corresponding with a minor.
“Third, we have to prove he was using the computerized communication system to commit a child sex act,” Kowaleski said. “There has to be talk of sex, and they’re the ones that have to bring that up.”
All that remains is for the suspect to show up at the meeting place.
Shawano County officials were part of five of the 19 arrests made during Operation Vanguard; three of them in Shawano County, including one man who drove here from Shiocton in a snowstorm March 27.
Deputy Jesse Sperberg played the juvenile in that case, and it moved from text messaging to an arranged meeting fairly quickly.
“Before we knew it, he was on his way up here to meet what he thought was a 15-year-old girl,” Kowaleski said. “On Friday night, Sperberg had another one from the city of Shawano. He got a ride out from some friends and was arrested when he got here.”
During the county’s Guardian Angel operation, authorities also used a decoy—a Shawano police officer who played the part of a juvenile and met the suspect face-to-face before the arrest.
Kowaleski said a decoy wasn’t really necessary, however, given that the suspect only needs to show up at the rendezvous.
“As soon as he shows up, he’s completed the crime,” Kowaleski said.
“It’s all a living process,” he said. “You always look for the best or a better way to do things and it’s subject to change as you go on.”