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The San Mateo County District Attorney’s Office on Friday dropped multiple felony charges against a Redwood City math tutor alleged to have sent “lewd” texts in an attempt to arrange a sexual encounter with a teen.
The 38-year-old defendant, Pouya Asrar, decided to forgo his right to a jury trial at the last minute and pleaded no contest to his first felony charge: going to an arranged meeting place with a minor for a lewd purpose. The San Mateo County District Attorney dismissed his remaining charges in response, which could cut his sentencing from up to five years to a maximum of two years at a state prison.
His trial, which would have lasted two weeks, was set to begin on Tuesday, Aug. 26. Asrar’s dropped charges included attempted statutory rape 261.5(c), attempted sodomy with a minor 286(b)(1), attempted sexual penetration with a person under 18 years of age with a foreign object 289(h), and contacting a minor with the intent of committing another specific felony 288.3(a).
Asrar is alleged to have sent GroupMe messages to a 17-year-old co-worker he met at Mathnasium, a Redwood City math tutoring center at the Sequoia Station shopping center, according to a Redwood City Police Department press release.
The district attorney’s office said, Asrar was a married man who allegedly started messaging the teen, “telling her she was pretty and asking about her sex life.” Despite the teen informing him that she was underage, he continued to message her and requested to meet, the district attorney’s office said.
The teen told the owner of Mathnasium, who then called the police, the district attorney’s office added. The police, who acted as the teen, took over messaging the defendant, who “again went into [a] lengthy description of sexual acts…”
Asrar organized to meet who he thought was the teen at noon at Wendy’s in Redwood City, where he “intended to take [the] victim from there to have sex,” but was instead arrested by the police. The police said they found condoms on him.
The case is now in the hands of Criminal Presiding Judge Kevin Dunleavy, who will sentence the defendant on Nov. 20.
The case was set for a jury trial last Friday, then moved to Tuesday per the request of the defense, which was the fourth setting of the jury trial date since the superior court arraignment on Dec. 19, 2024.
Asrar has been out of custody on a $50,000 bail bond since Nov. 22, 2023.
