State v. Lopez-Garcia
The State appealed an order dismissing internet-sting charges against Lopez-Garcia after the trial court found he had been subjectively entrapped by an undercover officer posing as a 14-year-old on a dating app. The Second DCA reversed, holding that although the text messages themselves were undisputed, reasonable people could differ on what the parties meant by them, so both inducement and predisposition were factual issues for the jury rather than questions the trial court could resolve as a matter of law.
Key facts
- Lopez-Garcia was charged with internet-sting offenses after an undercover officer posing as a 14-year-old contacted him on a dating app and engaged in text communications with him.
- The trial court dismissed the charges, finding Lopez-Garcia had been subjectively entrapped by the officer's inducement.
- +2 more key facts with a free trial
Why it matters
This opinion gives prosecutors a useful tool to defeat pretrial dismissals based on subjective entrapment in online predator sting cases by emphasizing that ambiguous or multi-interpretable chat exchanges almost always… — full analysis with a trial
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