The Devil Was Listening: How a 64-Year-Old Man Was Sentenced to Life in Prison for Talking Dirty on the Internet

Justice is a fickle bitch. It’s axiomatic that the very rich walk away with smaller sentences than everyone else. Nowhere is this more true than in sentencing for sex crimes. Stanley G. Rothenberg is living proof of the injustice in sentencing for sex crimes. An openly-gay man subject to the prejudices that older men face in a youth-oriented society, Stan wandered into the free-for-all of internet chat rooms, looking for the worldwide web equivalent of phone sex. But the more time he spent talking dirty on the internet, the more jaded he became, and he realized what it was that really excited him – hearing other people talk about depravities that they’d committed. Stan had no desire to engage in any of the actual activities – if they were even true – but listening to people talk about their own illegal fringe experiences turned him on.But what started as a freaky turn on turned into something much more serious – a pre-invented crime that skirted the edges of entrapment while laying the groundwork for invoking the most serious sentencing upgrades available to a federal court. The conclusion? A life sentence for an elderly man who just wanted to talk dirty on the internet.