Kennewick man claimed he was ‘role playing.’ Jury said it was sex crimes

In the summer of 2017, Yasir M. Majeed was an IT technician who’d spend hours looking at a computer screen while remotely backing up servers.

The 35-year-old Kennewick man would get bored, so he used the downtime to peruse ads on Craigslist.

The online classified site helped Majeed get his first car and a couple computer jobs, but it was the personals section that really captured his attention.

Majeed said of the approximately 100 times he went into that category, which used to include “casual encounters,” he physically met up with five to 10 people and had sex with maybe half of them.

It was his response to a July 7, 2017, posting that led a Benton County jury on Friday to convict Majeed of two felony sex crimes.

Majeed, who put his head in his hands when the first guilty verdict was read, appeared to be both surprised and upset.

He is facing a few years in prison for commercial sex abuse of a minor and communicating with a minor for immoral purposes.

The jury of five women and seven men was unable to reach a unanimous verdict on a charge of attempted second-degree rape of a child. The panel deliberated for about 2 1/2 hours.

A mistrial was declared on the third charge, and a tentative trial date was set for Jan. 28 while prosecutors decide if they want to go forward with a second trial.

Majeed was one of 26 men nabbed in the five-day Tri-Cities “Net Nanny Operation.”

The multi-agency sting targeted adults interested in having sexual encounters with minors, with undercover officers posting online ads claiming to be either kids as young as 11 or parents who were offering their children.

Majeed took the bait.

He answered an ad for a young woman looking for an “older daddy,” telling her he was educated, interested and clean of sexually transmitted diseases. He said he wanted to spoil her.

But when he took the stand Friday morning at the end of his four-day trial, Majeed said he thought it was all “role play” and he went along with it, trying to figure out if the person on the other end actually was a male or a female, or just a scam for money.

Majeed claims that role-playng, or fantasy, is common on sites like Craigslist. In this case he believed the person who posted the original ad was acting as a baiter in search of a person to be a sugar daddy or the fish.

He testified that he didn’t think he was chatting with a teen girl, even after repeatedly being told she was 13 and a runaway. However, he never sought clarification over two days of text messages and emails because that would have meant breaking out of the role playing.

“You have to continue with the game,” said Majeed, who at times was very animated during his hour-long testimony.

Asked if he really was browsing the personals to meet minors, Majeed said “that’s a disgusting idea.”

“It doesn’t make sense. Never crossed my mind in a million years. That’s not me,” said Majeed, who claims he’s sexually attracted to woman in their 40s and sometimes 50s. “I’m 36. I can’t even get along with people my age. It’s not even possible to think of people younger than my age.”

He said he was online that night mostly to chat, but there’s always a possibility of connecting with a woman for sex. Some ads he would read just because they were funny, while others got a standard reply about himself to see if more would develop.

While talking with the teen girl, Majeed asked if she likes to go on road trips or camping to see what she’s interested in or find common ground. He said when the girl wrote she wants to have fun, he took that to mean anything from playing soccer to having drinks, and not just code for sex.

Majeed testified that he never paid to have sex with women he met through Craigslist, though his text messages with the undercover detective show he offered to get a hotel room and pay $100 to the girl to make it worth her time. Some of the texts were graphic, with Majeed saying he wanted her bad.

Again, Majeed explained to jurors, it all was role playing as he tried to figure out if a legitimate person was on the other end. He said he was so skeptical that he even tried uploading the girl’s pictures to Google Images to see if they belonged to someone else, but there were too many filters on each picture to do a good search.

“To this point I know it’s a scam ...,” he said. “This is almost the end. I’m done with the scam. Try to convince me with some other game.”

Majeed said he was no longer interested in meeting with the girl. Yet, he drove to the designated Richland apartment complex on July 8, 2017, took a picture of his truck and continued texting with the girl until he decided to drive off.

“To be honest, it’s not the best decision I ever made,” he said, “but my curiosity got really up. They never sent a clear picture, never gave an address, no specifics at all. I was curious about the location.”

Majeed was arrested in a traffic stop. Police found five $20 bills and four condoms in the pockets of his shorts.

He told jurors that he always carried $100 cash and condoms, which he bought online in bulk.

Majeed claimed that if he had gone through with it and came face-to-face with a 13-year-old runaway girl, he would have called 911 to get her help.

“I’m attracted to people older than me. I think differently,” he said. “And now I’m accused of having sex with a minor, which is disgusting to me. ... Not in a million years. It’s not me.”

Majeed has been out of custody since posting $30,000 bond shortly after his arrest.

Since two of the sex crimes are no longer allegations but now convictions, prosecutors asked Friday to increase bail to $100,000.

Judge Alex Ekstrom set it at $50,000 and gave Majeed until 5 p.m. Monday to post it or go into custody. He’s also been ordered to have no contact with minors and to stay off the internet except for work purposes.

Sentencing is scheduled Dec. 12.

This story was originally published November 18, 2018 at 1:45 PM.