Online Solicitation of a Minor Charges in Collin County

Online solicitation of a minor is the charge Texas prosecutors bring over messages: chat apps, social media, texts, dating apps. Many of these cases begin with no complaining witness at all, just an officer running a profile, which is why an arrest often lands on someone with no criminal history who did not see it coming. It is a felony, it carries sex offender registration, and the evidence is usually a complete written record that the State has already read.

Kent Starr has practiced criminal defense since 1997 and represents people facing online solicitation charges in Collin County, and he takes these cases throughout Texas. He is a solo lawyer. The consultation is free and confidential, and he takes it himself. If you have been arrested, or a detective has called about your online activity, call (214) 982-1408 before you answer anyone's questions.

What Texas Penal Code §33.021 Actually Says

Texas Penal Code §33.021 defines a minor as someone younger than 17, or someone the accused believed to be younger than 17. That second part is the sting provision: a detective posing as a 15-year-old counts as a minor under the statute if the State can prove the belief.

The statute describes two separate offenses. Sexually explicit communication, subsection (b), is committed by a person 17 or older who, over the internet or by text, email, or a similar service, intentionally communicates in a sexually explicit manner with a minor or sends sexually explicit material to a minor, with the intent to commit one of a list of sexual offenses. Solicitation to meet, subsection (c), is knowingly soliciting a minor to meet with the intent that the minor will engage in sexual contact, sexual intercourse, or deviate sexual intercourse.

The communication offense is a third-degree felony, 2 to 10 years in prison and a fine of up to $10,000. It rises to a second-degree felony, 2 to 20 years, when the minor is younger than 14 or the accused believed so. The solicitation offense is a second-degree felony. Since 2021, either offense moves up one punishment category if it was committed during regular school hours and the accused knew or reasonably should have known the minor was enrolled in school.

What Is Not a Defense, and What Still Is

The statute says it is not a defense to a solicitation charge that the meeting did not occur. It also does not matter that the "minor" was actually an adult officer, if the State proves the accused believed otherwise.

The statute does provide two specific defenses to the solicitation offense: that the accused was married to the minor, or that the accused was not more than three years older than the minor and the minor consented. Both are narrow, and both depend entirely on the facts.

Beyond those, the State still has to prove every element beyond a reasonable doubt: the belief about age, the intent behind the messages, and, for the communication offense, the specific intent the statute requires. The complete conversation matters. Who raised what subject, what was actually said about age, how the exchange developed, and what the accused did and did not do are all evidence, and a partial excerpt in a police report is not the same thing as the full record. This statute has also been reshaped by constitutional litigation: the Court of Criminal Appeals struck down the original communications provision in 2013, and the Legislature rewrote it in 2015. The version of the statute and the exact subsection charged matter, and Kent reads both against the actual messages before anything else.

How These Cases Start in Collin County

Most of these cases arrive one of two ways. The first is a sting: an officer operates a profile on an app, a conversation develops, and the arrest either happens at an arranged meeting spot or comes later on a warrant. The second is a report: a parent finds messages on a child's phone and goes to the police, and a detective builds the case from the devices on both ends.

Either way, by the time you hear from law enforcement the State usually already has the messages. What it may still want is your statement, your devices, and your consent to a search. You are not required to provide any of those, and you should not, until a lawyer has looked at the case. If officers have a warrant, comply, and keep the paperwork.

A related pattern deserves its own mention: extortion schemes that pose as minors online and then demand money under threat of exposure. Some of the people who call about a solicitation accusation are actually being extorted by a scammer, not investigated by police. The firm's article on how underage sexting scams work covers that situation, and it is worth a read before you pay anyone anything.

Section 15.031: The Companion Charge

Penal Code §15.031, criminal solicitation of a minor, covers soliciting a minor, or someone believed to be a minor, to commit one of a list of sexual offenses. The punishment is generally one category lower than the offense solicited. Prosecutors sometimes charge §15.031 and §33.021 from the same messages, and the two statutes have different elements and different exposure, so which one is on the paperwork is one of the first things the defense pins down.

Sex Offender Registration

A conviction under §33.021 is a reportable conviction under Chapter 62 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, and deferred adjudication counts the same way. The duty generally ends on the tenth anniversary of the latest applicable date: dismissal of the proceedings, release from a penal institution, or discharge from community supervision. It is not a lifetime-registration offense by itself, but other reportable offenses on the same record can change the duration, and the registration requirement follows you to wherever you live, work, or study while it lasts. Registration exposure shapes every charging and plea decision in these cases, and it is discussed at the first consultation, not after a deal is on the table.

What to Do Right Now

• Do not give a statement about the allegation to police, and do not try to explain the messages to anyone who asks. Say that you want to speak with your attorney first.
• Do not delete anything. Messages, apps, accounts, photos. Deleting evidence can become its own charge, and the State may already have copies.
• Do not consent to a search of your phone or computer, and do not unlock a device on request. If there is a warrant, comply and keep the paperwork.
• Do not pay anyone who is threatening to expose you. If someone claiming to be a minor demands money under threat of exposure, it may be an extortion scheme. Do not pay. Preserve the messages and bring them to a lawyer.
• Preserve your own records. The full conversation, not the excerpt, is often the defense's best evidence. Keep everything where it is and tell your lawyer it exists.
• Call a lawyer before your first court date, and before you talk to anyone official.

If a family member is making this call, that is welcome. The client is the person facing the charge regardless of who pays, and the accused of child molestation page explains how that works.

How Kent Works

Kent Starr has been a criminal defense lawyer since 1997 and practices solo. When you hire him, he is the lawyer on the file from the first review of the chat logs through trial. There is no associate handling the case, and no hand-off after the consultation.

His office is in McKinney, the county seat, and the district courts at the Russell A. Steindam Courts Building are where he does this work. He represents people charged with online solicitation from across Collin County, including Plano, Frisco, and Allen, and he takes these cases throughout Texas. The Collin County sex crimes defense page covers the other charges he defends, including child pornography cases, which often travel with device seizures like these.

The consultation is free and confidential, Kent takes it himself, and you do not have to explain anything on the phone to schedule it. Call (214) 982-1408.

Past results do not guarantee future outcomes. Every case is evaluated on its own facts.

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