Professional poker player and convicted child molester Shahram Sheikhan will not be attending a charity poker event that will be held later this month by the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department, PokerHelper.com can report exclusively.

Sheikhan, 38, an Iranian native who lives in Las Vegas and goes by nicknames “Shawn” and “Sheiky”–as well as the media moniker “Poker Pervert”–was convicted of sexual battery of a minor and other sex crimes in 1995 in California and served nine months in jail and five years probation. The U.S. government tried to deport him back to Iran last year.

Shockingly, Sheikhan was announced by the Sheriff’s Department earlier this year as an invited celebrity guest to the February 24 second annual Memorial Poker Classic, run by the Sheriff’s Department’s Transit Services Bureau, at the Bicycle Casino in Bell Gardens, California, to raise monies for the families of law enforcement officers and firefighters who perished in the line of duty.

PokerHelper.com first broke the story that the perverted, poker-playing ex-con would be a guest at the law enforcement organization’s charity affair.

After other media, including a website that tracks sex criminals, picked up the story, a spokesman for the Sheriff’s Department last week defended Sheikhan and reiterated that he would be attending the charity poker event.

But, late today, sources told PokerHelper.com that there has been a reversal of that decision, and Sheikhan will not be attending the Sheriff’s Department’s charity poker event.

It was not immediately known whether the Sheriff’s Department disinvited Sheikhan or Sheikhan pulled out of the event to avoid further embarassment for himself and the department.

A source close to the situation said the first explanation is likely what happened, but the second explanation is likely what will be announced.

PokerHelper.com has contacted the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department for a comment on the situation but as of yet has not heard back.

(E-mail Tom Somach at tomsomach@yahoo.com.)