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.
