A Stanislaus County Department of Child Support Service attorney that authorities claim contacted an undercover decoy online that was a posing as a minor and made a proposition for sex has turned himself in. 

Jeffrey Drabin, 64, was booked into the San Joaquin County Jail on Thursday and not in custody by the time that authorities announced his apprehension. He is facing a pair of misdemeanor charges of sending explicit messages to a minor and arranging to meet a minor for sex. Drabin was placed on administrative leave from his place of employment, and a Stanislaus County spokesperson declined further comment to the media because it is a personnel matter.  

Deputies from the San Joaquin County Sheriff’s Department’s Child Abuse and Sexual Assault unit partnered with Lathrop Police Services and the Manteca Police Department last month for a sting operation to try and nab those who would attempt to meet an underage child for sex. The second of its kind this year, the sting operation netted 19 arrests in the week that it was active, and deputies claimed at the time that additional work would be done to identify the men who were talking with deputies online even if they didn’t actually show up for an in-person meeting. 

Drabin’s contact with the deputy apparently took place with an undercover deputy back in February – the first of the two coordinated operations that were led by Lathrop Police Services.

The transmission of harmful content to a minor, one deputy decoy said during last month’s sting, is in and of itself a crime and since every message sent during the operation was stored onto a separate hard drive for evidence purposes, those working the cases would be able to work backwards and determine along with the San Joaquin County District Attorney’s office whether the communications that were logged constituted a case that can be prosecuted. 

To contact reporter Jason Campbell email jcampbell@mantecabulletin.com or call 209.249.3544.