Man jailed for inappropriate online behavior
NORRISTOWN » A Delaware County man has some jail time in his future after he admitted to having inappropriate, sexually-charged 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, was sentenced in Montgomery County Court to 3½ to 12 months in the county jail after he pleaded guilty 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 granted a defense request that will allow Vassallo to serve the sentence over the course of consecutive weekends beginning this Friday. Vassallo also must complete five years’ probation following parole, meaning he will be under court supervision for about six years.
The judge said Vassallo will be under sex offender supervision during the course of the probationary and parole periods. Vassallo is prohibited from having any unsupervised contact with minors, the judge said.
Assistant District Attorney Matthew Brittenburg sought jail time against Vassallo.
“This is a person who needs to hear the jail door close behind him,” Brittenburg argued.
But defense lawyer A. Charles Peruto argued for leniency on behalf of Vassallo.
“He’s absolutely petrified, shaking, just thinking of a jail term. My client is extremely remorseful,” Peruto argued.
Peruto acknowledged he is a childhood friend of Vassallo who attended grade school with him. Peruto argued those in the community who know Vassallo where shocked about his conduct.
“Everybody loved Louie. Nobody can believe he’d go online and do something like this,” said Peruto, adding Vassallo has been a good husband and father
otherwise.
Vassallo bowed his head, appearing ashamed, as some of the sexually charged conversations were read in court by a detective.
“This has been the most humiliating time and year in my life,” Vassallo told the judge.
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-yearold 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 sexuallycharged 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 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.