Going the distance

Rolando Restocruz is the 33-year-old army staff sergeant who kneeled in our kitchen and told a sob story. But if he never intended to do anything wrong—how would he explain what investigators find in his truck?

Police (interviewing Restocruz):  Is all this stuff in the vehicle?

Restocruz: Yes, sir.

Police: Is that Trojan condoms?

Restocruz: Yes, sir.

Police: So, you brought condoms with you?

Restocruz: Yes, sir.

Police: How about Astroglide?  Is that some kind of sexual lubricant?

Restocruz: Yes, sir.

Police: You brought that with you?  (NOISE) How about panties and camisole?

Restocruz: Yes, sir.

Police: The Web cam.   Did you buy the webcam?

Restocruz: Yes, sir.

Police officer: Why would you bring it with you?

Restocruz: ‘Cause I’d promised her that I was going to give her one.

It was all there in the chat logs that  Perverted-Justice provided to law enforcement. Remember his screen name is “marriedandlookinforfun31313.”

Police officer: Does the screen name Bed Head red 14 ring a bell with you?

Restocruz: Yeah, that’s Whitney.

Police officer: That’s Whitney?  Okay.And Whitney you believed to be a 14-year-old girl, correct?

Restocruz:  Yes, sir.

Police officer: Yesterday, around 6:56 p.m., you told her after some chat, “I want you in my chest after we do it all—do it all night sleeping together.”  Is that you?  And you say, “I love you, baby.”  And then you say, “I want to be your loving husband forever.”  And you’re nodding your head yes. Then down a little bit further it says—“MarriedandLookingforFun31313” says, “We will have to hide your real age.”  You remember talking about that?

He doesn’t deny a thing. Investigators complete the interrogation and the soldier is taken to the county jail—where officers take his mug shot,  fingerprints, and place him in a cell.

Two days later he goes before a judge, where he’s told that “criminal attempt child molestation” is a felony which carries a penalty of one to 20 years.   Bail is set at $15,000.

He wasn’t the only military man caught in our sting.  But this other soldier’s memory isn’t as clear.  Remember first First Lieutenant Marshall Girtman. He made plans to meet a girl he thought was 15.

Marshall Girtman: Honestly I can’t remember her age.  She only told me that one time.  I knew she was probably under age just by the way we were talking—a bad judgment call, and bad judgment call to keep talking to her.

Investigator Gary Lewis:  Well, you know First Lieutenants don’t make bad judgment calls.

Girtman: Hey—

Investigator Gary Lewis:      Not always.

Marshall Girtman: Not always.  (LAUGHTER)

But he insists he had no plans for sex with the young teen.

Girtman: I would never let myself do that

Investigator Gary Lewis: But you let yourself Internet chat with a 15-year-old.

Girtman: Yes, sir.  I know.

Investigator Lewis: You let yourself come over to a house where there was only a 15-year-old in it.

Girtman: Yes, sir.  I know.

Investigator Gary Lewis: And  you expect me to believe that you didn’t expect to get laid while you were here?

Girtman: Sir, no, I don’t expect you to believe it, no.  But, knowing myself, no, I wouldn’t let it go that far in that sense, sir.

He did allow himself to send a girl he thought was underage a link to a pornographic Web site.

Investigator Lewis: So, you provided a 15-year-old child with a pornographic Website that she could go to?

Girtman: Yes, sir.

Investigator Lewis: Why would you do that?

Girtman: I don’t really have a good explanation of why.

Investigator Lewis: What’s really sad, Marshall, is this can cost you a military career.

Girtman: I know that, sir.

He’s taken away and processed like all the other men caught in our investigation.

A total of 20 men showed up at our house in Fortson, Ga. All 20 were arrested and booked by Harris County Sheriff Mike Jolley and his team.

Hansen: What do you think would have happened had there in fact, been a young teenager home alone, had Dateline and the Harris County Sheriff’s Department not been there?

Sheriff Mike Jolley:  I believe that we would have had some young child sexually abused.  No doubt in my mind.

And there are other adults seemingly on the prowl for sex with a minor.

One man shows up in his big rig.

And another, a director at a computer software company, is playing hooky from work so he can meet a 13-year-old home alone.

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