FL House Withholds Support for Senate-backed ICAC investigations
According to Florida Politics the Florida House has no companion to a funding bill in the Senate that would apply millions of dollars into the ICAC stings we’ve written about recently. The House’s refusal to immediately back the Senate proposal expanding funding for internet predator investigations is an interesting development, especially after years of these programs receiving near-automatic political support.
This shift may reflect something important: lawmakers are finally being exposed to discussions about the tactics, methods, and unintended consequences surrounding many online sting operations.
No one is suggesting that protecting children is unimportant. To the contrary. But there is a growing awareness that some of these “operations” blur the line between targeting dangerous offenders and manufacturing arrests through aggressive tactics, inducement, and operations designed more for headlines than public safety. FAC and its members have increased efforts over the last year writing letters, sharing personal stories, and asking legislators to look deeper at how these investigations are conducted and how the resulting laws are applied.
It may be wishful thinking to say FAC influenced the House position. But advocacy matters. Conversations matter. Once lawmakers are exposed to information they may never have previously considered, the debate changes. Questions begin getting asked that previously were not.
Even if things eventually move forward with respect to this funding, the hesitation alone signals that not everyone is comfortable simply rubber-stamping expansions anymore. For years, the public has only heard one side of these operations: the press conferences, arrest counts, and dramatic headlines. FAC has helped introduce another side to the discussion: proportionality, fairness, investigative ethics, sentencing consequences, and the reality that not every sting operation reflects the same level of danger or criminal intent.
Whether or not FAC played any direct role, opening the door to informed discussion is itself meaningful progress. Progress that needs to continue.
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My first felony charge came from a sting operation. I was told this at the time of my arrest by two detectives from Osceola County. The investigation involved someone using POF who was allegedly a hired civilian working in the Tampa Bay area specifically targeting people on that site and moving conversations to Kik.
Once on Kik, the person changed the stated age during the conversation. After that happened, I stopped communicating. About four months later, while I was at a party going through personal issues after my wife left me, a friend took my phone while I was playing beer pong and allegedly sent a nude picture of me to multiple women on Kik without me reviewing the conversations first.
About 27 days later, I was arrested. There was never any intent to travel discussed or found. According to the arresting officer, once the age was changed on Kik, I still sent the explicit image after supposedly knowing the person’s age. The detective also admitted she used her daughter’s pictures during the operation and stated that it was effective in drawing people in.
I eventually had to accept a plea deal after running out of money. By that point, I had spent around $18,000 on bond and legal fees. I ultimately pleaded to a charge of electronic communication harmful to a minor. Later, it was discovered that the entire case originated from an ICAC sting operation.
Dude that’s wild to use a picture of your daughter to entice men lol. That “public servant” was borderline pimping her own kid. Crazy world we live in.
Yes, she was 44 — the woman, not the man — who supposedly took over from the ICAC civilian side. They asked different agencies who would take the case on, and at the time she was the lead detective in Osceola, so she accepted it.
When she changed the age, she used a photo of her 14-year-old daughter in a soccer uniform, posed next to a soccer ball in a semi-split position. I told my lawyer about it, but yeah… Florida. Had to plea with no money
These seed is slowly growing
Yes, and it’s crazy that they promote and encourage wild sexual fantasies about kids wanting to meet random adult strangers online to engage in sexual interactions and to invite those adult strangers to meet for a casual sexual encounter. Have you seen the websites they lure the men from and how they do it?
It’s so crazy how our government has been enabling these individuals who have a need to act out, promote and encourage their own sexual fantasies about kids, just because they lie and call it “protecting children from online predators”. It has nothing to do with trying to protect kids from anything, It’s all done for self-serving purposes. They’re simply creating, acting out, promoting and encouraging their own sexual fantasies about kids, and then they demand that their delusions or fantasies about it be treated as real. They refuse to acknowledge that these are simply wild sexual fantasies they created and promoted about kids. It shows how they view kids. It shows what their heads are filled with. It’s certainly not about protecting children.
In my opinion, if these people who do this truly believe that kids want to and are doing these things online (luring, enticing, soliciting, and seducing random adult strangers online to engage them in an online sexual interaction and to invite those strangers to meet for a casual sexual encounter), then they are the ones who pose a true risk to minors. They’re clearly showing how they view kids and what their minds are full of – wild sexual fantasies about them – presenting them as having a great desire for this.
Then they lie and pretend that their intention is to protect kids from sexual abuse. They force the sexual fantasies they create on others to pretend like it’s those others who have a problem with sexualizing kids, instead of them.
I think many of them develop an addiction to – creating, acting out, promoting and encouraging these sexual fantasies about kids that they use these sting operations as their cover up for. We see them do it over and over again, easily lying about it, like an addict will lie to protect their addiction. It shows denial about their true intentions and behavior.
And our government has been enabling and protecting these individuals – the ones who are more likely to pose a true risk to minors – (based on the behaviors we’ve seen from them). It’s a really crazy country we live in. These people are hiding in plain sight doing this. They’ve been supported, enabled and protected by the public and our government simply because they have good story-telling skills to hide what they’re really doing. It’s all projection and deflection. They’re the ones who need help, the ones who have caused real harm to others with this (what seems to be an illness), and the ones who need to be stopped and held accountable.
That’s my honest opinion about those who have been hiding behind these fraudulent sting operations that have nothing to do with trying to protect kids from online predators and lie about what they do.
All stings convictions and sentencing should be reversed. Anyone caught in a sting on and ADULT site was NOT looking for a minor
As I’ve pointed out on my site ICAC-UNPACKED! on YouTube, icac could stand for Internet Crimes Against Citizens. It is just as apt.
Many of us from our our four corners of the United States have been screaming about this.
Finally, in cases like Michigan v. Jade and the Curry case out in the 9th circuit judges are starting to listen to. It’s damn well about time.
If there are any upcoming bills that specially fund these kinds of operations or any other subjects if interest, let us know so we can contact legislators to express our opposition to them.
How do we know if it was part of a sting? My son a homeschooled autistic youngest of 3 brothers has had his life ruined because of a report from Discord 2 weeks after he turned 18 and his public defender never even let us see the police report and refused to show us any of the documents or any discovery or info from the prosecutors and only bullied my son into accepting a plea deal. I have all the emails to prove that. We truly need help. They know he is a good kid , day of him accepting plea deal they added permission for unsupervised contact with his 12 year old sister because they had interviewed everyone and they know he is a wonderful and good brother and human. Discord and Roblox are the common denominator and the host of this foul content not the children on their site or the parents that thought their kids were using safe gaming platforms. 2 weeks after he turned 18 and just a few weeks after I had a major surgery I was handcuffed and all my children by are garbage cans. And our lives will never be the same.. our family home is too close to a school or bus stop and the only housing I could find is nearly an hour away. He has only ever had one small job and now he can’t find work.. he doesn’t drive ..his brothers are at home…his sister. We all miss each other and it is hard for me to afford to households.. I have to pay his rent and therapy and drive him for visits and variances.. his self esteem .. his heart.. his humanity.. I couldn’t afford 56k for someone to speak up for my son . And now we will pay for life.
Unfortunately, if your son was unable to afford representation, the PD was his option.
If you are dissatisfied with the assigned PD, you might want to consider speaking with a supervisor in the PDs office to see if they will assign someone for an ineffective assistance claim. Alternatively, he can ask the court to assign a “wheel attorney”, which is a term of art for private attorneys who get hired to represent indigent defendants when the PDs office has conflicts (ex: they are representing a co-defendant).
As for the housing issue, this is something that affects most registrants.
I tried his supervisor also did not help.
I have an autistic child, and that scares me deeply because Florida does not seem to truly recognize disabilities within the criminal justice system. My second felony came from what was essentially a traumatic brain injury mistake. I had moved from Colorado, where there was no registry requirement at the time, and Florida’s laws had changed. I forgot to report to the sex offender office, and suddenly it became a felony.
I was not trying to avoid anything. In fact, a detective told me it only came up because I went to the Florida DMV to register and title my vehicle. I was handling things openly, not hiding.
What worries me most is that my autistic son could someday fall into the same kind of trap — where confusion, disability, or misunderstanding is treated like criminal intent. Florida often feels more focused on numbers and money than on understanding people and their disabilities.
I did speak with a legal group. They estimated it would take around $50,000 just to begin fighting Florida, plus another $20,000–$25,000 for specialist testimony, and another $10,000–$15,000 for appeals because the state will likely fight hard to get the case dismissed.
I could probably sell everything, live out of my car, and lose my family trying to pursue this — and still may never win. It could take decades.
It’s heartbreaking as a former military member to feel discarded like trash after the government invested over $400,000 in training me.