To Catch a Predator · Riverside County investigation
Stephen Coates
Stephen Coates pleaded guilty following the Riverside investigation. He received 180 days in jail to be served on weekends and three years of probation.
Photo: To Catch a Predator Wiki
- Outcome
- Sentenced
- Evidence
- Attributed reporting
- Jurisdiction
- Riverside County, California
- Encounter
- Not established
- Decoy posed as
- Girl3
- Case number
- Not established
Personal details
- Born
- April 4, 1949
- Occupation
- Singer-songwriter
- Marital status
- Divorced
- Height
- 6′02″
- Weight
- 195 lb.
- Hair
- Gray
- Eyes
- Hazel
Charges & sentence
Sentence
180 days in jail to be served on weekends, three years of probation, lifetime registration, treatment at his own expense, and more than $6,000 in fines.
Attributed to the sources below. Consult the original record for full terms.
Case records
Hansen investigation2009 · Sentenced
Sentence · 2009
180 days in jail to be served on weekends, three years of probation, lifetime registration, treatment at his own expense, and more than $6,000 in fines.5
Reviewed sting-related legal outcome. The one-day jail term and three-year probation from2019 are a separate failure-to-register case, not the sting sentence.
Separate criminal matterSentenced
Failure to register as a sex offender
Convicted6
Sentence
One day in jail and three years probation for the separate registration offense.6
April 2017 conduct and January 4, 2019 conviction are community reported. Conviction date is not automatically a sentencing date. No original later docket or statute obtained.
Sources 6
Case narrative
Confrontation
Coates arrived at the sting house with over nineteen condoms, lubrication and Viagra. Del Harvey , posing as the teenage girl, led him inside. When entered the house, CD in hand, he was very shocked to meet Chris Hansen . When confronted, Coates declared his decision to leave. Chris stopped him and inquired about the object in his pocket. Coates pulled out a CD and gave it to Chris. He stated to panic. After Chris asked what he was doing at the house, Coates replied, "I was doing something I shouldn't be."
Coates reaffirmed his desire to leave after receiving his CD back. He claimed he had never had sex with a minor and didn't want to. Coates left the house while wearing his jacket over his face. The Riverside police then arrested him.
Police interview
While being handcuffed, Coates tried to bargain with Detective Chad Bianco as well as another investigator to be let go, saying things like, "I beg of you. I've never done such a thing in my life I never want to do it again." Detective Bianco snarkily replied, "Since you're the first person to say that today we'll let you go." When interview by a male investigator, while Coates confessed that he knew what he was doing was illegal and wrong, he claimed he wasn't going to do anything. When confronted with the fact that he talked about oral, anal, and vaginal sex, he repeatedly said "no" and stated that he never talked about vaginal sex. Coates then invoked the "fantasy" defense, asserting that it's impossible to know who you're speaking to online. He asserted that he would have driven her to grab a burger and spoken to her while doing so. Coates asserted once more that he would not have engaged in any sexual activity because it is all online fantasy.
Trivia
Coates faced a small controversy for titling one of his songs "Always Be Young." Such a title coming from a registered sex offender was not received well for obvious reasons, and Coates promptly renamed the song to "Always Be Young (On Venice Beach)". This fact was mentioned by Chris in his "Predators I've Caught" podcast episode on Coates.
Community-written, from the To Catch a Predator Wiki. Not independently verified, and it does not establish charges or court outcomes.
Stephen Coates, To Catch a Predator Wiki contributors; see revision and history links. · CC-BY-SA
Media
Sources
- 128: "Please sir, I beg of you!" on MegaphonePublic episode metadata matches the publisher RSS recording by title, release date and exact enclosure identifier. Reviewed publisher title/description names this profile as the subject of the recording.
- 228: "Please sir, I beg of you!" on SpotifyPublic episode metadata matches the publisher RSS recording by title, release date and exact enclosure identifier. Reviewed publisher title/description names this profile as the subject of the recording.
- 3Stephen Coates (community wiki)Attributed community article. Revision date describes the article update, not a court or sting event. Full infobox, narrative sections, references and assets are retained in the private archive.
- 4Stephen Coates: occupation informationThe profile infobox lists these occupations. Undated roles do not establish current employment.
- 5Stephen Coates: legal outcome (revision 16119)180 days in jail to be served on weekends, three years of probation, lifetime registration, treatment at his own expense, and more than $6,000 in fines.
- 6Stephen Coates: archived criminal-history narrativeLegal consequences reports guilty pleas to the three original attempted-contact charges. Aftermath separately reports a January 4, 2019 failure-to-register conviction for April 2017 conduct and a one-day jail/three-year probation sentence.