Man gets nine years for sex with underage girls

NEWPORT BEACH — A Costa Mesa man who had sex with underage girls he met through social networking sites received a nine-year prison sentence Tuesday at the Harbor Justice Center.

Richard Alan Chaney, 25, had pleaded guilty to luring a child with intent to commit a crime, oral copulation on a person under 16 years old, and sexual penetration and oral copulation of an unconscious person as part of a plea agreement with prosecutors.

He will be required to register as a sex offender.

Starting in May 2008, Chaney communicated via webcam with a 14-year-old girl in Texas through Stickam.com. When the girl visited California with her family that June, she snuck out and met up with Chaney and the two had sex in his car. Not until a year later did the girl's mother learn about the encounter and call police.

Investigators from the Orange County Sexual Assault Felony Enforcement Team searched Chaney's home three days after the mother reported the incident.

There they found several homemade videos and webcam pictures of him having sex with the girl and assaulting a then-unidentified teenager who he met through either MySpace or Stickam.com.

Authorities identified the second girl, who was 17, and charged Chaney. The video showed him sexually assaulting her while she was unconscious from drinking alcohol.

"It's an unfortunate example of the sorts of tools predators can use these days to gain access to vulnerable victims," said Deputy Dist. Atty. Drew Haughton. "I think it highlights for parents out there they've got to keep a close eye on what their kids are doing."

Child pornography allegedly found on Chaney's computer could also lead to federal charges.

"This may not be the end of his troubles," Haughton said.

Two felony counts of rape and unlawful sexual intercourse were dismissed. The sexual assault enforcement team is a task force of prosecutors, local police and federal authorities targeting online predators who possess, produce or distribute child pornography.