Man Accused of Soliciting Sex With 9-Year-Old

A Santa Ana man was arrested Wednesday on suspicion of using the Internet to solicit sex with a 9-year-old girl, authorities said.

Richard Andrew Simmons, 29, was taken to Santa Ana City Jail after paying an undercover police officer $350 to have sex in a motel room with who he believed would be a child whose picture he had selected online, police said.

The investigation began last month when the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department posted a decoy site on the World Wide Web advertising a sex service ostensibly providing young children for money. After receiving an e-mail inquiry requesting a 9-year-old girl, investigators communicated with the would-be customer by the Internet for several days, during which he sent them several pictures of nude girls ranging in age from about 7 to 13, a Santa Ana Police Department spokesman said.

Police responded by sending photographs of several fully clothed young girls--actually old pictures of officers--from which he chose one. After learning that the suspect lived in Santa Ana, investigators turned the case over to Santa Ana police, who arranged the 2:30 p.m. meeting with a female undercover officer in the motel room.

When arrested, the spokesman said, Simmons had various sex toys and a video camera in his possession. Bail was set at $50,000.