Morongo Basin Sheriff’s deputies arrested a 75-year-old man Thursday who was allegedly soliciting underage girls for sex. According to a Sheriff’s report, undercover officers worked an operation to identify people who were soliciting children online to commit sexual acts. One investigator was contacted through Craigslist by Joseph Colorosssi of Indio. Colorossi believed the investigator was a 14-year-old girl in Twentynine Palms. Investigators say Colorossi sent sexual messages and explicit photos of himself to the investigator posing as the girl, and set up a time and place to meet for sexual acts at an undisclosed location in Twentynine Palms. At 4 p.m. Thursday, Colorossi arrived at the location to meet the girl but was met by Morongo Basin deputies who took him into custody without incident. Colorossi had brought a large number of sexual items with him, and when deputies serve a search warrant on his home in Indio, they discovered evidence of other sexual encounters involving multiple juvenile girls. Joseph Colorossi was arrested for investigation of contacting a minor to commit a sex act, booked into the Morongo Basin Jail, with his bail set at $1 million. Detectives believe there are additional victims in this case. Colorossi has ties to Indio, Palm Desert, the Coachella Valley, as well as Puyallup, Washington. Anyone with information about the investigations should call 760-366-4175.
