Notes from the courtroom: RB online predator trial
Yani Leppanen said he was "99 percent" sure the 13-year-old girl he was chatting with online wasn't a real girl at all. Her screen name referred to "beach girls" and the number "13." Leppanen, 35, told the jury he knew this because he has daughters, and they would never refer to themselves in the plural form. In addition, he said, it was unbelievable that a real girl would put her age in her screen name.
Speaking fast and traveling all over the place with his answers, Leppanen tried to explain that he picked the girl specifically because he knew she was fake, and he was either testing law enforcement or trying to uncover some sort of criminal enterprise - it's not very clear. He seemed proud of himself when he was done on the witness stand, though, smirking at people in the courtroom.
A little Googling shows that Leppanen is or was a member of a Huntington Beach church choir and might be having some sort of financial or real estate issues, judging from a user comment he left on a loan service company's Web site.
Today's story on his trial can be found by clicking here.
About the Blogger
Larry Altman has covered crime in the South Bay since 1990. He's seen it all - the missing model who turned up dead in the desert, the wives found dead in trunks, the high-school coaches who get a little too close to their players. He drives his young colleagues nuts with his "I remember when" stories. He welcomes your tips and observations about the present, and you can mix in a little Lakers basketball talk if you like.
E-mail Larry at larry.altman@dailybreeze.com.
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About the Blogger
Denise Nix knew as young as grade school, when she spent every summer working on the camp newspaper, that she wanted to be a journalist. Denise has spent most of the last 12 years of her career in the courtroom. She joined the Daily Breeze in 2001, where she tracks and reports on hundreds of cases at every level of the justice system. And she's never, ever, seen a judge use a gavel.
E-mail Denise at denise.nix@dailybreeze.com.
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