REASON: Florida Cops Went to Absurd Lengths to Entrap Man Who Showed No Interest in Underage Sex
Sarasota deputies violated best practices and ethical standards for sting operations.
How do you catch a predator in Sarasota, Florida? You create one.
The Sarasota County Sheriff’s Office (SCSO) is going to “outrageous lengths” to make law-abiding lonely guys into sex offenders. That’s according to Noah Pransky, a fearless journalist who has been covering Florida’s addiction to entrapment for years.
In September, SCSO arrested 23 men for allegedly soliciting underage girls for sex. Pransky’s most recent piece in Florida Politics chronicles the elaborate back and forth between one of those men and a police officer pretending to be a young female. Pransky writes:
In one example from a 2017 operation, SCSO spent two days trying to seduce a 20-year-old man who showed no interest in having sex with a child. Detectives, who posted an ad for an 18-year-old woman on Tinder, matched with the young man and proceeded to swap “getting-to-know-you” texts for more than an hour; only then did detectives tell the man he was chatting with a 14-year-old girl, not an 18-year-old.
Undercover detectives continued to try and talk about sex with the man the next day; he again rebuffed the attempts, but continued the small talk because he indicated he was bored. Detectives then sent unsolicited, flirty photos to the man; a tactic that violates best practices and ethical standards for this type of stings.
The terrible thing about this case is that the sheriff’s office is not trying to save any actual kids. It is just trying to get an easy win.
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I am very interested in trying to see if a class action civil lawsuit can be filed on behalf of those involved and entrapped in these sting operations. It is time to take a stand and shut down these operations so the registry will stop growing. Are there people out there that really prey on children, absolutely and that is who they should be targeting but to pad their numbers with men who have no intention and are on adult websites is absurd. If we the people hit them in the pocket book and hit them hard in the pocket book and bring more of this to light then maybe just maybe the public will wake up and realize that the registry isn’t protecting anyone but it is destroying the lives of those on it and those who are close to the ones on it. I for one am ready to take a stand and finally be able to bring my son home and prevent any of this happening to other families. Just a thought….
I agree. I think that the courts are where the battle is to be won. FAC already has all of the law suits it can handle right now, and these lawsuits have the capability of starting the ball rolling in the state of Florida in bringing about the necessary changes that are needed so that registrants are treated at least as well as drug dealers, gang members, armed robbers, etc. All of this takes money, though, and as has been stated by FAC previously, politicians are counting on registrants not having the money to file these lawsuits.
So they use consenting adult sites for the stings, but they know which sites those looking for a underage minors for sex use. In several depos across the state with cops, 1) admitted under oath that he always used adult sites for his operations. 2) admitted under oath that 11 minutes after getting a response he changed the age from 18 to 14. 3) admitted that his department got funds from DOJ for all arrest/convictions. When you have Congress in the annual budget giving over 60 Million to the ICAC Program within DOJ, at the end of the day all this is about is MONEY! They will do whatever is necessary to get those funds from DOJ to public shaming with the press and force you into a plea deal. The Constitution and federal laws mean nothing to politicians, law enforcement at this point they want that MONEY!
Two weeks ago, a New Mexico district court considered a case of entrapment. The defendant was charged with using electronic communications to meet a minor for sex. In spite of her personal feelings, a judge had the courage to decide in favor of the defendant and dismissed the charge because of inappropriate police actions.
Briefly, a man in his 60’s had a conversation with a 16-year-old young woman in a hotel lobby, and gave her his phone number hoping they could later get together. At that point he had only suggested coffee.
The age of consent in New Mexico is 16, so even if he had suggested a sexual encounter, he would not have violated any laws. It just so happened that young woman’s mother is an Assistant U.S. Attorney, a federal prosecutor. Oops.
In that capacity, she had close associations with a state task force regarding crimes against children. She immediately went to their office and arranged for an operation directly targeting the man. I won’t get into details of the ensuing text exchanges. Suffice it to say that the investigator maneuvered a meeting with the daughter after now claiming to be only 14 and having sexual chat.
The judge chastised the prosecution for designing a targeted setup only because the defendant engaged in legal, albeit “creepy”, conduct. She was adamant that lawful actions could not trigger a criminal investigation or a sting.
Her decision made the slope toward increasing police overreach a bit less slippery. I love it when judges actually protect the constitution and the rule of law.
That is exactly what happened to my son in 2008. He has paid for it ever since. Still paying for it.
Ours too😢
Glad a national website is picking this stuff up. Hopefully it gains traction and more people all over the country see how much bullshit this is….and until someone goes after the feds and get this grant money to stop, this will just continue on as long as the carrot is still dangling out there
This is exactly why we DO NOT NEED big government.
I don’t know where many of you are with your political views but I am an independent who leans conservative on some issues. I lean conservative when it comes to the government trying to be our babysitters and walk us through life as if they have all the best intentions. The Fed government should be challenged on illegal BRIBERY for telling states that they (the Feds) won’t fund anything unless they (the states) implement “Megan’s Law”.
That’s bribery, and it SHOULD be brought up in oral arguments against the SOR. Period.