|
|
Tuesday, February 9, 2010 |
Serving Seguin and Guadalupe County since 1888
|
|
|
Marketplace
Sections
Services
Service Center
|
|
 |
|
Details emerge about explicit text case
Published April 23, 2009
SEGUIN — The Catholic school teacher investigators say came to Guadalupe County to meet a teen for sex allegedly sent the boy nearly 100 text messages — on Easter Sunday.
According to a court document obtained by the Seguin Gazette Enterprise on Wednesday, John Calvin Hegedus, 32, a one-time seminarian at St. James Catholic Church in Seguin, maintained contact with a 15-year-old local youth for nearly two years after meeting the boy and his family when he worked here in Seguin over the summer of 2007.
Hegedus allegedly participated in several social events with the boy and his parents, sending text messages around the holidays.
On Easter Sunday, the text messages allegedly changed dramatically from simple holiday greetings.
The boy’s family contacted sheriff’s deputies to report that Hegedus was sending their son sexually explicit text messages.
The sworn statement of Guadalupe County Sheriff’s Investigator Craig Jones, explaining why he wanted to arrest Hegedus, revealed that concerns over his overtures to a local boy led authorities to launch an investigation that included a text message “sting” by authorities and surveillance of the suspect as he made his way here from his Bexar County home believing he would meet the boy at his parents’ residence while they were away — for sex.
“(The youth) showed me the text messages he received from John Hegedus’ cell phone on April 12 and 13,” Jones wrote in his affidavit.
“There were 98 messages from April 12 (Easter Sunday) starting at 7:30 a.m. and ending at midnight,” Jones said. “I reviewed the April 12 messages to see a trend in the text message discussion went from initial inquiries about (the youth) going to church ... “ to a discussion about (the boy) having a girlfriend and then a specific inquiry about if (he) was still a virgin. Thereafter, the inquiries from John Hegedus’s phone asked questions about (the youth’s) sex experience and partners and if (he) had ever tried ‘bi stuff.’”
The inquiries from Hegedus, Jones wrote, became more pointed as the day went on — many asking about the size of the boy’s penis. Hegedus also allegedly sought to set up a meeting for Monday.
“Those comments led to other inquiries asking ... if he were ‘interested in trying something bi,’” Jones wrote. “The April 12 conversations were left with questions from John Hegedus’s phone persisting to get a plan for the next day.”
Those messages began at around 8 a.m. that day with questions of “What’s up,” “Should I come up,” and “What’s going on?” Jones wrote.
Jones took over the boy’s cell phone, and working with Sheriff’s Sgts. Bruce Tubbs and Kevin Ficke, devised answers to Hegedus’s inquiries.
“Based on the text messages being sent from John Hegedus’s cell phone, the message sender expressed he was ready and willing to come to (the victim’s house) to meet (him,)” Jones wrote.
Among the questions was a pointed one: “Have u ever had anal sex before.”
Then, the very last question: “Do u have lube.”
“I communicated back, ‘Nah, no lube Or condoms,” Jones wrote. “The reply from John Hegedus’s cell phone at 2:47 p.m. was, “I am bring lube. We don’t need condoms can’t get pregnant LOL.”
Thinking he was communicating only with the boy, Hegedus told investigators what vehicle to watch for. At 3:19 p.m., he told investigators he was close to arrival, and posing as the boy, Jones asked where he was.
Members of the county’s joint narcotics task force followed Hegedus to the boy’s home.
When Hegedus rang the bell, Jones and Tubbs were waiting for him, and Jones answered the door, he wrote.
“I answered the door to find the man seeking entry began to cross the front door’s threshold in an apparent state of excitement,” Jones wrote.
The excitement, which Jones didn’t further describe in his affidavit, changed abruptly when Hegedus saw his badge from “wide-eyed and happy” to a “lowering of the head and reserved,” Jones wrote.
He was arrested on the spot.
A search of his pockets revealed his cell phone — reportedly containing messages involving the Guadalupe County youth — and a tube of K-Y Jelly.
“I believe John Hegedus used his status as a church youth teacher and former seminarian, along with his past relationship with (the victim) in a continuous, two-day scheme to persuade and influence (him) into engaging in sexual conduct with him,” Jones wrote.
Precinct 1 Justice of the Peace Darrell Hunter set Hegedus’s bail at $350,000 and he is now awaiting trial on allegations of attempted sexual assault of a child, online solicitation of a child and inducing sexual performance of a child.
If proved at trial, online solicitation of a minor between the ages of 14-17 is a third-degree felony punishable by two to 10 years in state prison and a fine of up to $10,000. If the child is under age 14, the offense is a second-degree felony and the exposure rises to 20 years in prison. Attempted sexual assault of a child is also a third-degree felony. Inducement of sexual performance by a child is a second-degree felony punishable by two to 20 years in state prison.
Share |
Save |
Mail |
Print |
Comment
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|