- NEWS RELEASE -

Date: June 22, 2006

Subject: "Savagebeast" admits attempting to rape girl

A man who called himself a “savagebeast” on the Internet has pled guilty to attempting to rape a girl. Ruben A. Paiz, 41, of Kansas City, admitted in Platte County Circuit Court on June 22 that he attempted to entice and rape a 14-year-old girl. The “girl” was actually a Sheriff’s Department detective with Platte County’s Cyber Crimes Unit.

Platte County Prosecutor Eric Zahnd said, “Any man who would try to meet and rape a 14-year-old girl is truly a Savage Beast. He chose that name for himself, and it describes him perfectly. Fortunately, this ‘Savage Beast’ was captured by Platte County’s Cyber Crimes Unit before he could hurt a real girl.”

On April 25, 2005, Paiz traveled from Clay County to Platte County believing that he was going to have sex with a 14-year-old girl he had met 20 days earlier on the Internet. Paiz engaged in multiple instant message chats between April 5 and April 25, 2005 with a detective posing as a girl.

Paiz’s screen name was “savagebeast20012002.” After the “girl” he was talking to told Paiz she was only 14, he said he was looking for “someone to hang out with and to teach everything I know about sex.”

According to Zahnd, unlike most defendants who have been charged by Platte County’s Cyber Crimes Unit, Paiz refused to plead guilty to using the Internet to try to entice a child for sex and face a sentence of five years in prison.

In response, Zahnd’s office added an additional charge of attempted statutory rape in the second degree. Paiz ultimately pled guilty to child enticement and the statutory rape charge. As a result of the additional charge, Paiz faces up to 11 years in prison.

Zahnd said, “This man worked to groom someone over a period of 20 days for sex, even though he was immediately and repeatedly told she was only 14 years old. Internet predators are very dangerous and many will stop at nothing to pursue their prey.”

Paiz is scheduled to be sentenced August 17.

The case against Paiz was being investigated by Sheriff's Department detectives with Platte County's Cyber Crimes Unit and was prosecuted by Myles Perry, who is the assistant prosecutor assigned to that unit.