SAN ANTONIO – A 55-year-old man was arrested at his workplace after San Antonio police said they caught him sending a sexually explicit message to a detective who he believed was an underage girl.
Ernest Johnson was arrested Thursday for online solicitation of a minor, a second-degree felony, and was escorted to the Bexar County Jail.
The charge stems from an online interaction on Sept. 1 between Johnson and an undercover detective posing as a 15-year-old girl on a social media platform.
SAPD didn’t specify which platform but said Johnson sent an “unsolicited sexually explicit photo and text” to the undercover detective.
Through the course of the investigation, police were able to identify Johnson and his workplace, where he was taken into custody without incident.
Police said this isn’t the first time Johnson has interacted this way with minors. However, he did not have any outstanding warrants when he was arrested.
“This is not something that our department takes lightly. These criminals that are preying on our children are going to be arrested,” said SAPD Sgt. Washington Moscoso.
Great work by SAPD’s Human Exploitation Unit in the arrest of 55-year-old Ernest Johnson. Back on September 1st, Johnson allegedly sent inappropriate and sexual messages to an underage female. The underage female was actually an undercover SAPD detective. pic.twitter.com/H9xAphWJyN
— San Antonio PD (@SATXPolice) September 22, 2022