Law&Crime Sidebar - Teacher Tried to 'Explore' 12-Year-Old's Body: Police

Episode Date: February 9, 2026

A New Mexico teacher's life fell apart after he was caught in a multi-agency sex sting operation, "Operation Overwatch." Stephen Phillips, a long-time PE teacher, communicated with an undercover officer he believed to be the father of a 12-year-old girl. Law&Crime’s Jesse Weber has details on what Phillips revealed in shocking body camera footage.PLEASE SUPPORT THE SHOW: Grow your own audience today – go to https://www.opus.pro/sidebar for 1 week free plus 50% off the first 3 months of Opus Pro. HOST:Jesse Weber: https://twitter.com/jessecordweberLAW&CRIME SIDEBAR PRODUCTION:YouTube Management - Bobby SzokeVideo Editing - Michael Deininger, Christina O'Shea, Alex Ciccarone, & Jay CruzScript Writing & Producing - Savannah Williamson & Juliana BattagliaGuest Booking - Alyssa Fisher & Diane KayeSocial Media Management - Vanessa BeinSTAY UP-TO-DATE WITH THE LAW&CRIME NETWORK:Watch Law&Crime Network on YouTubeTV: https://bit.ly/3td2e3yWhere To Watch Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3akxLK5Sign Up For Law&Crime's Daily Newsletter: https://bit.ly/LawandCrimeNewsletterRead Fascinating Articles From Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3td2IqoLAW&CRIME NETWORK SOCIAL MEDIA:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lawandcrimeTwitter: https://twitter.com/LawCrimeNetworkFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/lawandcrimeTwitch: https://www.twitch.tv/lawandcrimenetworkTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@lawandcrimeSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

He believed that he was engaging with somebody who was offering up their child for sexual intercourse. A New Mexico teacher has learned his fate after he got caught up in a multi-agency sexting operation. And the takedown and the following interview all caught on video. Gentlemen, you look at that a man and just lost his life. One, this is not me. This is not my character. But apparently it is because I'm here. That right here is this is something I want to have to do with for the rest of my life. And you will not believe some of what he had to say to the cops who busted him.

I'm an outstanding human being up to this fucking moment. Welcome to Sidebar, presented by law and crime. I'm Jesse Weber. By the way, if you're putting things out on social media, if you're into content creation, you might be wondering how we put so many of our clips out there so quickly. We use something called Opus clip, okay? This is an all-in-one AI editor that makes it so easy to cut, create,

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Having a tool like Opusclip means that our producers can get you viral courtroom updates instantly. This is the most powerful tool there is to share ideas and edit like a pro. So go to Opus.com slash Sidebar to get a free week and then 50% off. A 51-year-old man in Albuquerque, New Mexico was caught trying to organize a meetup between himself and a man who he thought was offering up his 12-year-old daughter for sex. Now, as sick as that is, as disgusting as it is, the good news is, this wasn't real. No, this was part of an undercover operation in October of 2024.

This ruse was part of Operation Overwatch. This was out in Bernalio County. It ended up with nabbing eight alleged sexual predators, including Stephen Phillips, who we want to talk about. And he would eventually be convicted of attempted human trafficking because investigators said this guy shows up at a home thinking he's going to meet up with this, you know, child. And instead, he's met with multiple state and local agents. They were waiting to bust him. They say Phillips parked down the street, walked up to the home, even apparently brought a sex toy with him. He said it's a decoy outside, but I think that's our best we should take it.

Go, go, go. Let's go. Let's go. Wait, let's see your hands. Get down on the ground! Get on the ground! Get on the ground! Get on the ground! Get on your stomach! Go on your stomach!

Go on your stomach! Go on your stomach! Oh my God, you know. Don't persisting! We're going to get taste! You're going to get taste in real stop! Give me a hand! Look at your hand!

You got you got lift all right they're sad quick good mess all right do you have any weapons on your sword we're gonna sit you up all right ready one two three and the side she's done you guys have a question like yeah what you fucking cars and before we dive into what phillips apparently told investigators immediately after his arrest we got to go back we got to look at what tipped them off in the first place to this guy and i'm going to warn you this is not pretty okay according to the New Mexico Department of Justice, this all started on the fetish website known as FetLife. A criminal complaint says that Phillips created a post that said he was looking for,

and I quote, a baby girl to spoil. Now, he didn't get in touch with who he thought he was getting in touch with. No, instead, an undercover officer reaches out to Phillips, pretending to be the dad of a young girl and offering her up to Phillips. Prosecutors say that Phillips and the undercover officer, they then communicated on the kick messaging app and a Officials provided snapshots of some of those text messages. Very, very compelling evidence. It's going to be very tough to argue that that wasn't you writing this and you didn't say what you meant. Because in them, Phillips apparently said this was a fetish that he never tried, but claimed he was very interested.

The officer's messages are in green. They say, quote, I'm in the Northeast Heights. She is 12. Believe me, I'm beyond discreet. Now, a person, believed to be Phillips, responds, hmm, might be enticed if I saw how she looked or her body. The undercover officer writes back, she's good, man, to which Philip says, I definitely want to explore her. I'm excited. So how do we do this?

And the fake dad, the undercover officer, says, it's easy. I'm in the heights where my girl is comfortable. I just give you my address and you come over. Not too complex, honestly. Just imagine for a moment that this wasn't an undercover operation if this was real. Very sick, scary stuff to be thinking about, right? Now, even though this was a setup, the consequences for Philip. Phillips were very, very real.

When investigators sat down with him to get his side of the story, they learned that he was a longtime PE teacher at a local school, Sin Aguas International Charter School. It's in southeast Albuquerque. And Phillips told the officers that the school, they served students in kindergarten through eighth grade. So just imagine who this guy was around. And once the officers take Phillips into custody,

they search him, they read him as Miranda rights, and they prod him into talking about how they all got here. Now, Phillips swears up and down that he's a good guy, who made a mistake that he never actually intended to have sex with this fictional 12-year-old. Gentlemen, you look at an man who just lost his life, right? You're looking at a man who just worked at his career for a long time. And I was so torn when somebody just messages me, hey, you want to come. And what is this? This cannot be true, cannot be.

and then you just want to like you almost want to witness to see if it's out there right one this is not me this is not my character but apparently it is because I'm here that right here this is something I want to have to do with for the rest of my life and uh in this pain and torment that I I put myself through right now and all the time's just of driving over here like what the a-ha-you doing this is just ridiculous what this is not who you are or what you are what you're about and and so I just want I just want a lawyer I want somebody to be able to help me do this process the easiest way possible right I want to be very honest with you from keeping me

from taking my life that's where it's at I have hundreds of parents who who look up to me right and I don't I don't I don't I don't I've never in a million years even have made a move I have done anything on on any girls that's that's I know that for a fact a junior professional and then this curiosity got the best of me even knowing when I'm driving over here like you your gut type of with this, I mean, and it has nothing to do with probably getting caught. It has to do with me. It doesn't matter, gentlemen.

I'm just completely embarrassed and completely. I said, I just lost my life. You know, I just lost it. And so now, to hit rock bottom, when you're already just, just struggle. Anyway, you guys all need to hear this story.

Okay. Well, I'd like to appreciate that. that right like I've been doing this for a long time so I've sat across from a lot of people that isn't feeling the same way you're feeling now okay so I don't you said to you spend your whole life dedicated to working and I don't think you're a bad guy right maybe just a guy who made a mistake just as you said that curiosity but let me beat you this here real quick and then we can talk about that you'd like all right all right Stephen you have the right to remain silent anything you say can and it will be used to

against Unicorbed law. You have the right to talk with a lawyer and have him present with you while you're being questioned. You cannot afford to hire a lawyer. What will be appointed to represent you before any questioning if you wish? If you decide any, you can decide any times to exercise these rights and not answer any questions

or making statements. Did you understand each of these rights does I explain them to you? Can I get a guess or no? Yes, sir. Okay. And having these rights for mind, do you wish to talk with us? Very honest and open that, whatever.

Again, I think talking to a lawyer, I'd be with my best bet. Would you like to talk to a lawyer before you talk to us? I've got really nothing to hide at this point. Like I said, you'd be looking at a man who's asking us. So, I don't know you, right? So I'd like to get to know you. I don't sit across the table from too many people.

They're monsters. There are some. But I mostly sit across the table from people who make, who have made a mistake. maybe they were at a low point in their life, maybe they were lonely, maybe they were curious, but most of the people I talked to, this isn't who they are. Some of them, this is who they are, and we just finally caught them, right? I don't know if that's you or not, but I'd like to find out. So tell me, tell me how all this started. Everything's going to lead you to here tonight.

Phillips confirmed that everything started on FetLife, this social media networking site that connects people with various fetishes and kinks. It's all meant to be above board, but this is unfortunately not the first time that we've talked about someone using FetLife to assault children or try. So he reached up to you and asked, that was like, that was the first message? Like, hey, I saw your account, do you want to have sex with my daughter? Was there some back and forth? Um, yeah, just a little bit of back and forth. Okay. Right?

I was just, I was like, I mean, again, you don't get somebody saying, hey, you want to my daughter, right? First response would be like, I got to fuck, dude, just, you know, what are you, right? Then you're like, I was just curious what you got, but I don't even really know the conversations just back and forth of, is this real or you, who you say you are, is this, you know, It's, I'm sure you guys know the conversation even. I haven't seen it. No.

It's very simple and straightforward, I guess. Like, I'm giving you first crack at it. I haven't seen it yet. So the first drawer I'm hearing yours. Yeah, yeah. And again, it was probably two hours or three hours of conversation of, he reached out to me and asked if I wanted to his daughter.

I was like, at first, there was no age, and then he said the age, and they said 12. What the f***, right? And so you must have expressed interest, right? Because that's why you're here. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Of course. So you must have said yes.

Would that be, would that be fair to say? Well, yeah, I'm here, right? Yeah. So that's an obvious thing, right? I wasn't co-hears to being here. I wasn't bribed to come here after me. Like, no, no, I don't want to come. Yeah.

I, this makes no sense. I stayed in my car for a long time and then, yeah. Yeah, so Phillips is obviously very embarrassed about this predicament he's now gotten himself into, and he doesn't want to provide a lot of details to the investigator who's questioning him. There are often these kind of long pauses, and sometimes he puts his head down on the table. Okay. So, like I told you, you got first crack at this right, I haven't seen the chats, but I will. So I'll see, I'll see the hands.

to these questions you just have the opportunity to tell me first and I can say Steven was very poor coming and very honest with me he's a guy who made a mistake tonight right not a guy who has done this a thousand other times that be right that is that is 100% correct okay so we're giving you the opportunity to tell me what I'm gonna find when I look like I said you're the first you get the first story here you have the first we're advantage It's very simple as that. Come have sex with my daughter.

I don't know what is this about. I'm not justifying anything that I did at all. But my intention wasn't to come over here and have sex with a girl, a young girl. It was to see the situation. Right. So you were concerned for her, the girl? Yeah. Is that like, I was, is this what she wants?

Is this one of the questions, is she, does this make her happy? Like, is this what she is, how does this happen? The longer this interview goes on, the more clear it seems to be calm to Phillips that everyone is going to find out about this. Now, now I'm really going to have to get you, get to know you, Stephen, right? Which means I got to have to dig into your life for a little while. So, am I going to find... Yeah, you want some parts on. I go there.

Am I going to find anything else in your life that's going to cause me pause? Is there going to be images on your phone that I'm going to be concerned about? Am I going to find other chats with similar beings or are you talking underage girls? When the story hits the paper, am I going to have any underage victims coming out to me saying, saying hey he did something to me too when the story is a baby that's nothing I can do to control that part of the First Amendment row I this I cannot live with this I would not live with this I can't this is not something that I I have my most favorite part of the day that's going to school and then reading these kids and then now and then I've been

back to school for 10 years and I've been the heart of the school, the heart of the school. And then now for me to mess that up and for that to be spread and for those kids to just hear this, right? For my daughter to hear this, absolutely devastating. Hell of her daughter. She's 31. She's 31. Any grandchildren? No.

No. Just the one child? Now this is interesting because during the interview, Phillips kept trying to push blame and attention off of himself and instead pointed to the dad offering up his child as the truly evil person in this scenario. The problem is, remember, there is no dad. This was an undercover officer. This doesn't work. That argument isn't necessarily doing him any favors. Nobody believes that you met somebody online, agreed to have sex with the 12-year-old girl, go over to the house, brought her a...

of you're only there to check it out. You know what I'm saying? It's the same, we're getting that same feeling that you get when your students are just blowing a bunch of smoke up your so just be honest with this man. You're not honest. You didn't hear that what was it? That wasn't. So you what was going on in my head? So you agreed to have sex that told you were over that that chat. You drove to a house, you brought a bit of you didn't, you weren't really You eat in your head you word a lot, no part of you thought you might be this girl. How did it make you feel? Nervous, excited, both?

Nervous. Sick to my stomach. The heart of my throat. Not kind of exciting? You can interpret excitement for her. So that right there is not excited. I was telling you it was... More of a frightening feeling than anything else.

Let me ask you this. Did you come here because you wanted to have sex with the 12th? girl girl or you can hear because you want to just have sex with a girl any girl she'd been 19 went back right just i have sex with a lot of girls a lot of of age girls i have a lot of women that i see right it's the sex is not really all that everything is about right like it's We're here to hear your story. I know you to hear the real story, but also you got out of schedule. This is completely embarrassing.

It's completely embarrassing to just even, to think that I just, because I already knew, I already knew the state old. I already knew, like, what the fuck? I already knew it. What helped you know it? What helped you know that? What's that? What helped you know that you should stay home?

Well, because of the situation, like, no person in the right. mind will we'll present you know what I mean like without any background like without anything it's just like what you're gonna get Joe so you are you are under rest right you understand that yes so you'll get transported down the officers will have your charges and they tend to make pod determinations based on your safety and security does that make sense So I'm not the discretion of somebody. Yeah, no, that's what you just said.

I'm not at the discretion of somebody who's like, I want to put you in that part of that bond, depending on whether. It's a system. It's a system. I'm at the control of the system. Have you ever been booked before? Yes. Okay, for what?

It was, um, I felt like a ticket and I had that warrant out of my arrest. Okay, sir, it sounds good. So, that doesn't sound like something so crazy, right? You're not a sex offender or anything. like that? No, okay. Or you're not,

have you ever assaulted a peace officer or anything like that? It doesn't sound like it. I don't know. Gentlemen, I'm an outstanding human being

up to this fucking my time of making a foolish just to even just come over here and check it out just to even

just to even give somebody too fucking sense of a conversation. Well, what are you? see the Sun came down who's that why it's by uh it's a Native American from the Blackfield tribe is that Canadian last name's Hawthorne no they're

from North Dakota okay is that where you're originally from I could be or my ancestry that's that's where I'm from some reading it's it's a book about the beginning of time well do you have any questions we asked you a lot of questions if you have any questions obviously you asked what's gonna happen next we told Yeah. Do you have any other questions for us? No, do I get to talk to a lawyer? If that's what you, if that's what you want, man. It's as simple as that.

Yeah. Talk to a lawyer. Okay. Cool. All right, man. So you have to sit tight for a few minutes, but we'll let you know what's going to happen next as things progress, okay? Phillips was searched. He was put in a patrol car, but this is where he tells the officers that he's diabetic and his blood sugar is very low.

So the paramedics, they meet up with the police, they check him over, they eventually decide he should go over to the hospital to get an IV. So an officer sits with him while he's recovering and then they take him to jail. And what happens? Grand jury indicts Phillips in November of 2024 on two charges with a third lesser charge offered up as an option. But Phillips faced counts of attempted criminal sexual penetration of a child under 13 and attempted sexual exploitation of children by prostitution. He ended up agreeing to plead guilty to that lesser charge attempting to commit. felony human trafficking of a victim under 16. And details about the sentence weren't immediately available in the court docket, but we've reached out to the clerk to try to find out a little bit

more. Well, I'll tell you what, after Operation Overwatch finished up, several agencies came together to talk about the success of this operation and to warn those who are out there who might have disturbing ideas of their own, don't do it. Don't be in a sexual conversation with a child and you will never have to meet us. It's never acceptable. It's never acceptable. Stay away from it. Get help or as sheriff and others said, we can help you. You probably won't like the help that we're going to give. So get yourself help and I've doubled down in everything. The parents have good trusting conversations with your kids. You can try to go through their phone for days. They'll just outsmart you half the time. Really, you just have to

have a good conversation with them and hopefully they come to you and they see something scary online or on their phone and talk to you about it. But these operations reduce the amount of hands-on sex abuse cases, my detectives have to get assigned. So I love these operations and we can't wait to do the next one. And that's all we have for you right now here on Sidebar, everybody. Thank you so much for joining us. And as always, please subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, wherever you get your podcasts. Also, we're up on NBC's Peacock. If you want to follow me, X, Instagram, my News Nation show, Jesse Weber Live, Monday through Friday, 11 p.m. Eastern. I'll see you next time, everybody.