The Queens District Attorney’s Office announced charges of attempted rape and attempted child pornography for a school crossing guard after he allegedly tried to convince an undercover police officer posing as a minor to engage in sex acts.
Jared Jeridore, 24, was working in Jamaica when the NYPD’s Internal Affairs Bureau started to receive complaints about him from underage individuals, according to the Queens DA’s office.
Officials said an undercover officer posing as a 14-year-old girl met Jeridore at the intersection of 108th Avenue and 167th Street – just a block away from J.H.S. 008 Richard S. Grossley, on the morning of March 28.
Prosecutors said they met again on April 18 at the intersection, exchanging Instagram handles and Jeridore allegedly interlocked his arm with the officer as they walked together to a nearby bus stop. That same night, Jeridore allegedly asked the officer to join him in a sexual act over video call, according to the DA’s office.
For the next few days, Jeridore allegedly sent messages through Instagram to the NYPD, thinking he was communicating with a teenage girl. The DA’s office said he described sexual interactions he wanted to have with her, and sent her a nude photo and a sexually explicit video.
On April 23, Jeridore allegedly called the undercover officer, asking her to meet him at a Best Western Hotel on the Van Wyck Expressway in order to have sex.
Police arrested him at the hotel and recovered three condoms from him, according to the DA’s office.
Jeridore was arraigned in Queens criminal court Wednesday, charged with attempted use of a child in a sexual performance, three counts of attempted dissemination of indecent material to minors in the first degree, attempted rape in the third degree, official misconduct and attempted endangering the welfare of a child.
Judge Julieta Lozano ordered him to return to court June 7, and he faces up to seven years in prison if convicted.
Jeridore’s lawyer did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
“Young people need to be able to trust the adults who are charged with keeping them safe,” said District Attorney Melinda Katz in a prepared statement. “This defendant is accused of violating that trust with someone he thought was a teenager. His arrest should serve as a warning to any sexual predator who thinks they will not be caught and held responsible.”