A Panorama City man’s trial over federal charges that he used Instagram to meet Santa Clarita Valley teens and then solicited sex in exchange for access to drugs and alcohol has been pushed back six months by a court order.
Judge Andre Birotte Jr. made the move Dec. 17 at the request from counsel for both sides, after they submitted a joint stipulation several days prior to state the move was necessary to ensure a fair trial for Saul Henry Alfaro, 38.
The primary reason given for the second continuance was a change of counsel for the defendant, whose new attorney had a schedule that conflicted with the current scheduled trial date of Jan. 20. Alfaro was set to have a hearing for his case later this week to discuss the schedule.
Alfaro has remained in federal custody at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Downtown Los Angeles since his arrest in March, which followed a joint task force investigation that identified two SCV juvenile victims.
The potential penalty for a violation of 18 USC 2252 could range from 10 to 20 years, according to federal guidelines, which have the strictest penalties for such crimes.
The criminal complaint against Alfaro stated the victims were as young as 12 years old, which prompted the William S. Hart Union High School District to share an alert with parents in March, following Alfaro’s arrest. Officials did not release any information about where the victims attend school locally.
Special Agent Victoria Scott, who wrote the criminal complaint charging Alfaro, also gave a presentation to parents in April to warn them about the dangers of children having unfettered access to social media.
Scott, working out of the Ventura office for Homeland Security Investigations, wrote in her complaint that the investigation began after the Burbank Police Department received a report in April 2024 from a mandatory reporter about “an adult male who was using Instagram to sell alcohol and marijuana to minors in exchange for sexual favors.”
In November, the BPD tried to contact one of the alleged victims that they were able to identify from a search warrant on Alfaro’s phone. The alleged victim said she was not ready to speak with law enforcement.
On Feb. 2, police officers received another alert, this time an anonymous tip, regarding a similar scenario. The anonymous caller said the man was “pretending to be a teenager” on the Instagram account, and that there were more than 10 victims.
The day before Alfaro’s arrest, the alleged victim who previously had been contacted by law enforcement in November identified him in a photographic lineup as “Mr. Jointz,” a man she gave oral sex to in exchange for alcohol, according to Scott’s complaint.
Scott worked on the case with the BPD as part of the Los Angeles Regional Internet Crimes against Children, or ICAC, Task Force. The task force is a national network of 61 teams representing more than 3,000 federal, state and local law enforcement agencies, according to officials.
Alfaro used the following profile names to communicate with minors: mr_jointz, val.91503836, 8o5_joeyy, scv_joeyy1, kim.9120123, mia.7477289, cfs3.99771776 and hugediktaylr, according to a Burbank Police Department news release. The complaint also mentions the use of SnapChat and TikTok.
