Man admits to improper online conduct
NORRISTOWN » A Delaware County man is awaiting his fate from a judge now that he’s admitted to having inappropriate, sexuallycharged online conversations with an undercover detective he believed was a 14-year-old girl.
Louis Martin Vassallo, 63, of the 1000 block of Oakwood Drive, Darby Township, pleaded guilty in Montgomery County Court to a felony charge of unlawful contact with a minor in connection with incidents that occurred between November 2016 and April 2017. Judge Todd D. Eisenberg deferred sentencing so that court officials can complete a background investigative report about Vassallo.
The judge also ordered that Vassallo undergo a psychosexual evaluation as part of the background investigation.
Vassallo remains free on bail pending his sentencing hearing later this year. Vassallo faces a possible maximum sentence of 3 ½ to seven years in prison on the charge. However, state sentencing guidelines could allow for a lesser sentence.
An investigation of Vassallo began in November 2016 when Vassallo started having online conversations with an undercover detective working with the Montgomery County District Attorney’s Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force, who was conducting investigations into online child exploitation. Court documents indicate Vassallo believed he was communicating with a 14-year-old girl named “Jennifer.”
Using the online moniker of “NoWhereMan,” Vassallo chatted with the undercover detective, stating, “do you ever think of someone older” and “would be nice to be with such a young woman,” according to the criminal complaint filed by detectives.
Eventually, Vassallo provided the undercover detective with his email address and began sending sexually-charged messages to who he believed was the 14-year-old girl. Vassallo indicated he wanted to kiss and touch the girl and wrote, “You should get to know your body and what feels good,” according to the arrest affidavit.
As the conversations continued into December 2016, Vassallo recommended using a more secure Internet chat site and it was during those communications that Vassallo sent photos of his genitals to the undercover detective posing as the teenage girl, court papers alleged. Vassallo also sent links to sexually-related videos and voice recordings to who he believed was the teenager, detectives alleged.
When detectives confronted Vassallo with the evidence they had amassed in April 2017, he allegedly confessed “to visiting chat rooms where he knows minors might be discussing sex and to chatting with a girl ‘Jennifer’ he believed to be 13 or 14 years old,” according to the criminal complaint.
“Louis Vassallo admitted to sending three pictures of his penis to ‘Jennifer” to try to excite her,” detectives wrote in the criminal complaint.
Assistant District Attorney M. Stewart Ryan is prosecuting the case.