'Dateline' sex case may be headed for trial

One of the nearly 30 criminal cases stemming from a televised "sex predator sting" in Petaluma two years ago may be headed toward trial with a crucial court ruling expected this week.

Sonoma County Superior Court Judge Ken Gnoss is set to announce Friday whether prosecutors have put on enough evidence to order an Oakland man to face trial on felony attempted child molestation charges.

Chandrashekhar Nunna, 33, has argued through his attorney that he didn't intend to have sex with the 13-year-old girl he arranged online to meet at an east Petaluma house on Aug. 26, 2006.

The "girl" was really a decoy working with a self-professed online vigilante group known as Perverted Justice, whose workers say they arrange sex liaisons with adults who come on to them as they pose as minors in Internet chat rooms.

Shortly after Nunna arrived at the house following nine days of chatting with the decoy online #150; sometimes about sex #150; he was confronted by a "Dateline NBC" TV reporter and, moments later, police, who arrested him.

Nunna's arrest, along with those of 28 other men, was shown on national TV as part of the news show's "To Catch a Predator" series. "Dateline" aired two hours of the Petaluma sting, paying Perverted Justice $140,000 for its part, according to court testimony.

NBC rented the house and provided all the video equipment to Petaluma Police, who allowed "Dateline's" Chris Hansen to interview the men -- who sometimes apparently assumed he was a cop -- before officers swooped in and arrested them.

Nunna, who at the time of his arrest was listed as a software engineer, has pleaded not guilty and is free on bail. If convicted, he could face a four-year maximum prison term and be required to register as a sex offender for the rest of his life.

At the first day of Nunna's preliminary hearing Friday, his attorney, Steve Spiegelman, suggested his client simply planned on bringing the young girl a Starbucks coffee drink when he showed up at the Castle Drive house, and may have wanted to warn her that what she was doing could be dangerous.

Prosecutor Juliette Olson introduced 45 pages of transcripts of Yahoo instant-message chats that she said shows Nunna planned a sexual encounter with the girl, who told him she was a virgin.

Within 25 minutes of online chatting, Nunna allegedly asks her if she's "ever been intimate with a guy."

"You know if I hang out with you and someone finds out, I will go to jail. I will be called a pedophile," Nunna allegedly wrote her a half-hour later, according to the transcripts.

Later, though, Spiegelman pointed out, Nunna said he couldn't have sex with her because it was wrong and that she should find someone closer to her own age.

Spiegelman planned on showing Gnoss a videotape of Nunna arriving at the house and audio of a phone call from another decoy guiding Nunna into the garage. He said the tapes show Nunna's intentions weren't criminal.

Of the other 28 men arrested during the three-day sting, 19 have been convicted of either felony or misdemeanor attempted child-molestation charges, most through negotiated pleas.

One man was sentenced to three years in prison because he had a prior, similar conviction. The others received three-year probation terms, some with additional jail time. They were all required to register as sex offenders with the state.

Eight other cases are pending trials.

One man, a U.S. Marine from Camp Pendleton, was turned over to federal authorities last year to face a maximum of 86 years in military prison if convicted.