EXACTLY!!!!

You highlight a VERY important point and one that we’ve been making for a long time… In a state with ELECTED judges; our judges are politicians. If they make an unpopular decision they see 100K votes going out the door. Who will do that?

Charles, but it’s very nature, Statute 777.201(1) and 777.201(2) stack the deck against the “defendant”. It reads as follows:

“A law enforcement officer, a person engaged in cooperation with a law enforcement officer, or a person acting as an agent of a law enforcement officer perpetrates an entrapment if, for the purpose of obtaining evidence of the commission of a crime, he or she induces or encourages and, as a direct result, causes another person to engage in conduct constituting such crime by employing methods of persuasion or inducement which create a substantial risk that such crime will be committed by a person other than one who is ready to commit it.”
The above paragraph is language taken directly from Florida Statutes 777.201 (1) which describes entrapment. What clearly takes place in these “stings” is entrapment and entrapment is a defense to a crime F.S. 777.201 (2)”A person prosecuted for a crime shall be acquitted if the person proves by a preponderance of the evidence that his or her criminal conduct occurred as a result of an entrapment. The issue of entrapment shall be tried by the trier of fact.”

The problem here is that the “issue of entrapment” shall be tried by the “trier of the fact”, i. e. the judge adjudicating. Therefore, what judge is going to backtrack on a verdict, when he is worried about his constituency, since he or she is elected, and not appointed.

The fact is this needs to be addressed on two fronts: 1) Educating the computer-using public and I mean EVERYONE in “safe computing”. If the conversation doesn’t sit well with the individual, the person who is the target should IMMEDIATELY contact their local law enforcement and tell them that they believe there is a minor in whatever “adults only” chat room the incident is occurring. The individual can also just say, “I think you’re a cop, trying to entrap me, and I’m ending this conversation NOW!” But the word needs to be gotten out. Number 2) ALL of these laws need to be challenged on a Constitutional level, and if possible need to be addressed, much in the way the Miranda Act (Miranda v. Arizona 1966) and CHANGED so that the onus is put back on the law enforcement agencies. This is not only unfair, it’s horrible police work. Time and money could be spent in much more fruitful ways, and just depending on a “nice” sheriff’s department, such as HCSO is not enough, when Polk County has a rabid dog as Sheriff and his whole reason for being seems to be running these police “stings”.

In ending this, entrapment is one of the most egregious acts that can be committed against local citizenry, short of denying Writ of Habeas Corpus (where a law enforcer is REQUIRED to literally, “produce the body”:)

We cannot rely on – obviously – local law enforcement to do the proper thing. While the HCSO may understand this and put their efforts and money to hunting down true predators, we still have to deal with people like the Polk County Sheriff.

I should also note that there is a swing, albeit, a slight one in the pendulum. I see that Sheriff Joe Arpaio may have cost his county millions of dollars and although he thinks he’s running for re-election, his actions are coming under heavy scrutiny.

One more note. I understand that our Florida judges are elected, but they must be held to the same scrutiny as other public officials. When judges begin to make bad calls because it will hurt them with their electorate, it may be time to look at judicial appointees, who have to be vetted and go through a process similar to that on the Federal level.

Agreed – it’s all over the state.

I was offered 10 years in prison! I had a 3 year old son, a career, a marriage (albiet troubled) and a good life. How can one get out of that?

These stings are not law enforcement… They are law MANIPULATION.

This is the criminalization of U.S. citizens who needed help. We needed counseling, we needed support. What we got was taken advantage of. No one was saved. No child was protected.