District Attorney Cynthia Zimmer announced a significant conviction stemming from a law...

District Attorney Cynthia Zimmer announced a significant conviction stemming from a law enforcement decoy operation.

On September 16, 2026, a Kern County jury convicted Jagjeet Singh, age 40, of two felonies: Attempted Contact with a Minor for a Sexual Offense and Meeting with a Person Believed to be a Minor for a Lewd Purpose.

The case was prosecuted by Deputy DA David L. Eller.

In September of 2023, the Kern County Sheriff’s Office was engaged in an ongoing decoy operation to identify individuals who contact and meet with minors to engage in sexual acts. On September 9, 2023, Singh messaged one of the decoy profiles on a dating application involved in the operation. The decoy, an undercover Kern County Sherriff’s Office Deputy, posed as a 15-year-old male. Singh was informed repeatedly by the decoy that the decoy was 15 years old.

Singh told the decoy that he was a commercial truck driver that lived in Fresno and described in detail the sex acts that he was going to engage in with the 15-year-old decoy. Ultimately, Singh drove to a gas station in Bakersfield, which had been agreed upon by both Singh and the decoy as the meeting place where they were going to engage in the aforementioned sex acts. Upon arrival, Singh was contacted and arrested by law enforcement.

DA Zimmer commented; “Preventative law enforcement operations like these allow perpetrators to be identified before they have the opportunity to victimize a real child. In addition to a prison sentence, the conviction carries a mandatory lifetime sex offender registration requirement, subjecting Singh to continued monitoring and restrictions which are intended to protect the public and prevent further offenses.”

Sentencing is scheduled for October 14, 2026. Singh faces up to 3 years, 8 months in prison and will be required to register as a sex offender for the rest of his life.