El Dorado Hills man gets house arrest for statutory rape of girl he met online

An El Dorado Hills man accepted a plea deal that allowed him to serve six months of house arrest for “unlawful sexual intercourse” with a 15-year-old girl he met online, court records show.

Jitendra Berera, 57, pleaded no contest in Alameda Superior Court to the single charge, as part of a plea deal finalized on April 10, court records show. He had been previously out of custody since last July, when he was charged with sexually abusing the girl and paying her $100 afterward.

Court records say Berera met the victim on Sugar Daddy Meet, an online service for adults. Police said at the time of Berera’s arrest that the girl’s boyfriend overheard a lewd conversation between her and Berera and notified her mother, who called police.

Investigators reportedly reviewed the girl’s phone records and chat logs and found evidence Berera paid her $100 for a sexual encounter, and that she told him he was a minor.

Berera was initially charged with committing a lewd act on a child and oral copulation of a person under 16, court records show, but those counts were dropped through the plea deal.