A Placer County jury has found former Fresno police sergeant Paige Grant McQuay guilty of attempted lewd and lascivious acts on a minor under 14 and communicating with a minor with intent to commit an unlawful sexual offense. McQuay, who had worked for the Fresno Police Department since 1993, was arrested in September 2024 during an undercover sting operation run by the Roseville Police Department. Sentencing is scheduled for Nov. 9 at 9 a.m. in Placer County Superior Court.
The conviction closes out a case that began more than two years ago, when McQuay was one of 19 people arrested on felony charges during the Roseville operation, according to GV Wire. At the time of his arrest, McQuay was 56 years old and serving as a sergeant with the Fresno Police Department, as the Los Angeles Times reported in 2024. He was taken into custody on suspicion of attempting to contact a minor to commit an unlawful offense and attempting lewd acts with a minor.
Undercover Operation Used Officers Posing as Children
The Roseville Police Department's sting relied on undercover officers who posed online as children as young as 13, per the Los Angeles Times. McQuay was held without bail at Fresno County Jail following his arrest, and the department placed him on paid administrative leave while both criminal and internal investigations moved forward, the outlet reported. The Fresno Police Department publicly confirmed the arrest at the time, with local station FOX26 posting on X that the department had announced the arrest of Sergeant Paige McQuay on a charge of attempting a lewd act upon a child.
More than two years later, the case reached a jury, which returned convictions on both the attempted lewd acts and communication charges, per the same account from GV Wire. McQuay had spent more than three decades with the Fresno Police Department before his arrest upended that career, according to the Fresno Bee, which also reported on the jury's finding.
