A 58-year-old Reno, Nevada man was arrested in Placer County on Oct. 21 after what authorities describe as a months-long investigation into online communications with someone he believed was a 13-year-old girl. The suspect, identified as Robert Popowski, was booked into South Placer Jail following the arrest.
According to the Placer Sheriff
, detectives began investigating Popowski in July. The sheriff's office says Popowski communicated online with a detective who was posing as a 13-year-old girl, and that the conversations were sexual in nature. Investigators say Popowski went on to plan a meeting with who he believed was that 13-year-old girl, intending to meet for sex in Placer County.
A Placer County judge issued an arrest warrant for Popowski last month, per the same account. From there, a Placer County Sheriff's Office Crimes Against Persons detective partnered with the Reno Police Department's Human Exploitation and Trafficking Unit, which helped track Popowski down and take him into custody.
Charge Described Differently Across Records
The sheriff's office says Popowski was arrested for lewd or lascivious acts with a child under 14, a violation of Penal Code 288(a). However, a separate booking record from recentlybooked.com lists the charge description as Contact Minor with Intent Sex. It is not clear from available records whether these reflect separate counts, different labels for the same underlying charge, or a discrepancy between sources, and no court filing, plea, or case outcome has been made public.
The Placer County Sheriff-Coroner-Marshal's Office, headquartered in Auburn, California, has jurisdiction spanning from the Sacramento Valley to Lake Tahoe. The agency, established in 1851, posted news of the arrest to its official X account on Sunday under the headline “Child Predator Arrested Following Months-Long Investigation.”
Cross-State Cooperation Led to Arrest
The case illustrates how local sheriff's detectives increasingly coordinate with out-of-state law enforcement when online predators cross jurisdictional lines. In this instance, the partnership between Placer County investigators and Reno's trafficking unit proved central to locating and arresting Popowski, according to the sheriff's office.
No additional details about the specific online communications, the undercover operation's methods, or further investigative findings have been released. The allegations remain unproven in court, and Popowski's case will proceed through the Placer County judicial system following his booking.
