Tuesday, April 10, 2012

Officer Robert McChester Arrested for Enticing Minor

Robert McChester Jr., 27, has been arrested on charges of using a facility and means of interstate and foreign commerce - a telephone and a computer connected to the Internet - to coerce and entice a minor to engage in sexual activity, United States Attorney Kenneth Magidson announced today. 

The complaint alleges that between May 1, 2011, and April 1, 2012, McChester began communicating with a child he knew to be 15 years old. Shortly thereafter, the victim allegedly made an outcry to medical professionals regarding the inappropriate relationship she had been engaged in with a Corpus Christi Police Department (CCPD) officer.  

McChester was discovered to be an active duty patrol officer with the CCPD and that he had been communicating with the victim via the Internet for approximately one year beginning in May of 2011 and continuing up to the date of the victim's outcry, according to the complaint. The victim further alleged they had met on several occasions and engaged inappropriate activities.

Online communications between McChester and the victim were recovered and determined to contain content of an inappropriate sexual nature.

McChester was arrested shortly following the filing of the federal complaint Tuesday afternoon and is expected to appear before U.S. Magistrate Judge B. Janice Ellington Wednesday.

The investigation was conducted by the Corpus Christi Police Department's Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force (ICAC) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement - Homeland Security Investigations.