Sex offender thought he'd be meeting 8-year-old girl

Cops: Sex offender thought he'd be meeting 8-year-old girl
Thursday, July 3, 2008BY JASON TSAISTAFF WRITER

A former Bergen County man thought he'd arranged to have sex with an underage girl, but the contact was a county undercover detective, authorities said today.

Michael B. Darrigo, 43, of Atlantic City, was arrested around 6 p.m. yesterday after driving to a location Bergen County where he thought he’d be meeting an eight-year-old girl for sex, Bergen County Prosecutor John L. Molinelli said.

Darrigo, who is unemployed, had been recently chatting on the Internet with the county investigator who claimed she could arrange the sex, Molinelli said. He also sent this detective child pornography pictures, Molinelli said.

According to state records, Darrigo is a registered sex offender who in 2002 sexually assaulted an underage girl in Bergen County.

That same year, Darrigo – who was then living in Englewood Cliffs and employed as a pizza chef – groped a 21-year-old woman during her mid-morning stroll, according to police in Wyckoff.

In yesterday's case, Darrigo was charged with endangering the welfare of a child, attempted aggravated sexual assault, and the possession and transmission of child pornography, authorities said.

He is being held on $350,000 bail at the Bergen County Jail and under orders from a judge not to use the Internet, authorities said.

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