Sex Offender Pleads Guilty to Following Girl in Foothill Ranch

A 46-year-old convicted sex offender who followed a 13-year-old girl from one store to another in Orange County in July pleaded guilty today to felony child annoyance.

Steven Neil Paff is scheduled to be sentenced Dec. 5. Orange County Superior Court Judge Michael Leversen took the guilty plea.

Paff met the 13-year-old girl and her mother July 5 while they were standing in line to pay for goods at a 99 Cents Only store on Town Center Drive in Foothill Ranch, Jim Amormino of the Orange County Sheriff's Department said in July after Paff was arrested.

The mother and daughter were acquainted with the store clerk and were joking around with him when Paff jumped into the conversation, Amormino said.

"They didn't think too much of it, so they got into their car and drove to another shopping center to pick up a couple of items at Ralphs that they couldn't get at the 99 Cents store,'' Amormino said. "The mother stayed in the car because the daughter was just getting water and ice cream.''

Soon after the girl got into the supermarket, she turned around and saw Paff staring at her "so she goes down another aisle to get away from him and there he is,'' Amormino said. "She goes down another aisle and there he is again. She's trying to get away from him, but everywhere she goes he follows.''

Eventually, the girl went to a cashier and said someone was following her in the store, so a Ralphs employee walked her out to her mother's car, Amormino said. The mother went inside and confronted Paff, but he quickly left the store, Amormino said.

The woman tried to follow Paff in her car, but soon lost him, Amormino said. She called authorities and alerted them, then went on the Megan's Law website and scrolled through hundreds of photos over several days before she found a picture of Paff, Amormino said.

Paff is a transient, but investigators were able to track him down because he was wearing a GPS monitor, Amormino said.

—City News Service