By Brian Anderson
Valley Times

Nov. 8, 2001

PLEASANTON — Two people were arrested Tuesday and accused of attempting to extort $1,000 from a married Pittsburg man after he had sex with a woman he met online, police said.

Peter Breuer, 27, of Alameda, and Lacy Vincent, 20, of Turlock, were arrested after the 32-year-old man told police the pair had threatened to expose his affair to his wife, family members and co-workers, said Sgt. Bob Lyness.

The man told investigators he began talking through e-mail to Vincent, who police think sought out married men seeking sex via the Web, Lyness said. After chatting online and on the telephone, the two met Oct. 19 at a Pleasanton motel, where they had sex, police said. About five days later, the man received an e-mail threatening to reveal the incident unless $1,000 was sent to a post office box in Mountain View, Lyness said. The man went to police, who mailed a marked letter to the box, then staked out the private mail center.

Breuer was arrested Tuesday morning as he picked up mail from the box, police said. Detectives arrested Vincent that afternoon at her Turlock home after she was identified during police interviews, Lyness said.

Police have identified one other victim in Pleasanton but think as many as five additional men were targeted for extortion. In each case, Lyness said, married men who had advertised online for sex were the potential victims.

Lyness said the man did not pay up front to have sex with Vincent.

Police did not know what the relationship between Vincent and Breuer was but characterized it as a "business arrangement." Breuer, Lyness said, was supposed to get 45 percent of the money.

Computers at the home of both suspects and the victim's East Bay office were seized, police said.

The two were booked into Santa Rita Jail on suspicion of conspiracy and extortion.

Police did not identify the Pittsburg man or discuss the matter with his wife, who police said found out from her husband.

Lyness said police have investigated many criminal cases that occurred online as computer use became more common. But extortion plots - electronic or not - do not come up often.

"We had them in the past, but they're a pretty rare thing," he said.