The Irving Police Department is asking the public for help finding Denis Deras, a 20-year-old wanted in connection with the sexual assault of an 11-year-old girl on July 13, 2025. Deras has known ties to the Dallas area and previously worked in the roofing industry, but his current whereabouts are unknown.
According to a Wanted Wednesday post from the Irving Police Dept.
Because the alleged victim was 11 years old, the law treats such cases with particular severity: under Texas Penal Code Section 22.021, sexual assault committed against a child younger than 14 automatically constitutes aggravated sexual assault of a child, a first-degree felony punishable by five to 99 years or life in state prison, according to
Varghese Summersett
. Should Deras eventually be convicted or receive deferred adjudication, Texas law would also require lifetime registration as a sex offender under Chapter 62 of the Texas Code of Criminal Procedure, per
Bennett & Bennett
.
Detective With History on Child Exploitation Cases Leads Search
Anyone with information on Deras's whereabouts is urged to contact Detective Andrew Padrutt at 972-721-6565 or [email protected]. Padrutt is listed by Irving police as the primary contact on the case. The Dallas Children's Advocacy Center credits Padrutt and Detective Raungi Jones with important investigative work in the Beckam case, according to the Dallas Children's Advocacy Center.
The Crimes Against Children Division of the Dallas County District Attorney's Office receives roughly 700 cases annually from police departments across the county for prosecution of child sexual abuse, child pornography, and child trafficking offenses, according to the Dallas County District Attorney's Office.
Part of a Broader Regional Push Against Child Exploitation
The search for Deras comes amid wider regional efforts targeting child exploitation in North Texas. A joint operation led by FBI Dallas and North Texas law enforcement agencies in April 2025, dubbed Operation Soteria Shield, resulted in the rescue of 109 exploited children and the arrest of 244 suspects across the region, according to the City of White Settlement.
Irving police currently employ roughly 410 sworn officers serving a city of more than 256,000 residents in the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex, per RollKall data. The department's capacity is backed by a $323.5 million General Fund budget for Fiscal Year 2025-2026, which included funding increases for expanded police and emergency staffing, according to information posted on the City of Irving's ArcGIS story map.
How Residents Can Report Tips
Tips can be submitted anonymously through the Irving Police Department's non-emergency line at 972-273-1010 or by email at [email protected]. Hoodline previously reported that the non-emergency line was staffed 24 hours a day for information about a missing person in its coverage of another Irving fugitive search: the search for Guillermo Ayala Villatoro.
The city also maintains an active Neighborhood Watch Program that trains residents to coordinate directly with Irving police investigators to report suspicious activity and track crime trends, according to the City of Irving. As of Wednesday, Deras's current whereabouts remain unknown, and investigators have not released further details on the circumstances of the alleged assault beyond the case number and date on file.
