Messages on teen's cell trigger sex sting

South Ogden police have arrested a man they allege tried to solicit sex from a 13-year-old girl by sending explicit text messages to her cell phone.

Police said the girl was sending a text message to a friend on Oct. 9, when she accidentally misdialed the number.

"That's how the conversation started and he continued to text her and asked her questions," South Ogden police officer Marci Edwards said Saturday night.

The two engaged in a text message conversation that police said became increasingly graphic. The girl was receiving so many messages, her mother took notice.

"Her daughter's cell phone was just going off like crazy, and it was unusual for her daughter to receive so many text messages," Edwards said.

Police said the mother flipped the girl's phone open to read some of the messages, shocked by what she was reading. Edwards said the mother texted a few messages back, posing as her daughter, but the conversation soon became too much for her to handle.

"The girl said he'd been texting her all day," she said. "The things he was saying were 'gross,' in her words. ... It was very clear that his intentions were he wanted to have sex with her and it was made known to him that she was 13."

The mother took the phone to South Ogden police, who had a detective pose as the 13-year-old girl. Over the next three days, the two traded text messages back and forth.

"This individual sent numerous texts daily in a grooming type way, to groom this child into actually having sex with him," Edwards said. "He kept wanting her to meet him, asking her what she wants. We set up a meeting where he was apprehended."

Jose Galvan-Alcala, 29, was booked into the Weber County Jail on investigation of solicitation of a child, a second-degree felony. Bail has been set at $10,000. Police said the 13-year-old girl, whose misdial launched the investigation, was unaware that her cell phone was being used for a high-tech sex sting.

Her mother had never read any of her text messages before, but Edwards said: "She does now."

South Ogden police said all parents should be aware of who their child text messages on cell phones.

"They are children, and they can be manipulated easily," Edwards said. "It was just a text message to (the girl). What was important is that the mother was checking."

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