I know I saw a case summarized in TDCAA Prosecutors' Report a while back where a cop went online and posed as a teenager and the defendant tried to argue that since the cop wasn't a real child, no offense was committed. Ring any bells?

I remembered something like that, but all I could find was this unpublished Dallas case from 2000. Here's the link:

http://www.courtstuff.com/cgi-bin/as_web.exe?c05_00.ask+D+7463156

Then I was able to find the CCA opinion affirming it. Chen v. State, 42 S.W.3d 96 (Tex. Crim. App. 2001). I have no idea why I didn't find it with my searches.

But that case was why the legislature amended section 15.031, Penal Code, to make it possible to prosecute a defendant for soliciting a person he thought was a minor.