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Two men were arrested in Queens last week in two separate cases of internet pedophilia.

“The allegations in these two cases expose a very disturbing development brought about by the Internet age,” Queens District Attorney Richard Brown said. “These cases underscore the crucial importance of Internet surveillance initiatives by law enforcement to protect children from sexual predators and should serve as a warning to parents to closely monitor their children’s Internet access and activities.”

Raul Thomas, 26, a Queens Village resident and member of the Manhasset-Lakeville Volunteer Fire Department, was charged with statutory rape of a 16-year-old girl at motels in Queens and on Long Island and with possession of child pornography.

Thomas was investigated after a man reported seeing a naked image of a 16-year-old girl whom he knew on Thomas’ computer in February. The man copied the folder from the computer and reported what he saw to police after turning over files. Police allegedly found three files containing a series of instant message conversations between Thomas and the 16-year-old girl. They also allegedly found 97 screen shots of instant messages and both web camera shots of the naked teenager as well as sexual conversations – including instructions on how to pose for him on the web camera and instructions to perform sex acts.

Thomas allegedly engaged in oral and sexual intercourse with the teenager in his car or at motels in Queens and Nassau between November 2007 and April 9, 2008 before his arrest. Thomas allegedly admitted to having the conversations with the teenager and to having intercourse and oral sex at the time of his arrest.

In the second case, Emmanuel Maldonado, 27, an unemployed Brooklyn security guard, was charged with attempted rape, attempting a criminal sexual act, attempting the dissemination of indecent material to a minor and attempting to endanger the welfare of a child, after setting up a meeting for sex with an undercover officer posing as a 14-year-old girl from Queens.

Police began the sting operation when an undercover officer posing as a 14-year-old girl allegedly received messages from Maldonado in an internet chat room. Maldonado allegedly asked the undercover officer’s age and requested details about the officer’s personal residence. The detective said he was a fourteen-year-old girl who lived with her grandmother. Maldonado allegedly told the officer he was 27-years-old and asked questions about her physique and what she liked sexually. He also allegedly inquired about when she might be alone in the house.

After several conversations, Maldonado requested a meeting with the officer at a Fresh Meadows movie theatre on May 2. An undercover officer met with him at the movie theatre at 5:40 p.m., and both Maldonado and the officer proceeded to a nearby Boston Market. He allegedly told the officer that he wanted to go to her home instead of the movie theatre – to which the officer replied that if they were going to do what they had talked about online, he would have to get condoms. Maldonado allegedly agreed and was taken into custody on the way back to his car.

If convicted, Thomas faces up to 15 years in prison. He is being held on $100,000 bail. Maldonado faces up to four years in prison and is being held on $10,000 bail.
The attorneys of both Thomas and Maldonado did not respond to interview requests.