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.
Discover more from Florida Action Committee (FAC)
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
When scotus made the ruling that cops can lie to suspects the cops took it to mean that they can lie any time they feel like it.and we thought they should be held to higher standards ,for shame
Unfortunately there are no laws that protect anybody from these sick and twisted people that work in law enforcement and hide behind the law to do sick and twisted things like this to others, just because they can easily get away with it.
Don’t these apps or whatever have block options ? Could have blocked the person immediately.
” 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. ”
More like trying to get that Federal grant money $$$
What a hoax using a “strawman” (fictitious underage person) as a “victim.” Too bad main stream media will never cover this.
This is Fucking Bullshit what is going on in that State. No one going to stand up to the Courts and Politics and Demand this Shit be stop! I am glad I got out of there and closed Pof and other adult dating sites
Thanks for putting this out there this is actually what they are doing so who are really preying on children who is really being protected put public really need to know the truth could be one of there own children on adult sight after arrest they black out the picture they send plus half the texts its time for all of us to that happen same way to fight these sheriff department pack they did it in jax may 7 2017 too
I tried posting comments to this article, but they are requiring that I open up an account with them. I have 30 pages of accounts now and am not willing to open up anymore. If someone has figured out a way to do it through Facebook or Google, please let me know.
As a public schoolteacher of 30 years and being raised by a father who was in law enforcement, I have always given law enforcement full support. I still know that there are many officials who still have some integrity but too much has been coming out these past few years that greatly concerns me. These sting operations are becoming excessive, when the real crime out there is sometimes being ignored.
I reported earlier at FAC that I first heard of these stings when friends of mine had a son in his young twenties go to an adult Christian website to meet a female age 21 or older. Everything described in this article is what happened to their son. No one would call this young man of the criminal type. He is one of the most caring people that I have ever met, having no desire to harm minors. The law enforcement official at the other end of the texting knew exactly all the right buttons to push to “take this guy down”. I was always taught in teaching that if you push a student hard enough into a corner, even the best student will come out doing things that they would never do on their own.
This is not the first article that I have read where law enforcement is “destroying” all of the “evidence” that they are gathering in an unconstitutional manner.
I am wondering if having sheriffs appointed rather than elected could bring a halt to these sting operations. Then there would be no need to base their decisions on what gets votes, but rather what would be best for the safety of the public.
Sarah F…. First I like to thank ya father for services and agree too. I was raised to trust and respect and honor them but theres getting to be too many bads ones thats screws it up. Also same on SOs their some yes maybe need to watch or so but many that are on there with no victims etc and have to life with the labeling. Reform is strongly needed. Honest work and justice is set aside for easy to get and draw up the rates for them. Its not serve and protect on the car anymore its their logo for theor rates and budget.
Sarasota cops are the worse. I was arrested in 2007. I was in an adult chatroom on Yahoo. You had to sign on twice to show to Yahoo that you were stating you are an adult. I was contacted First by my victim unsolicited. Talked for three months but only 5 days were used. It did on those 5 days then claim to be 16. I never traveled to meet and broke off communication. Used my real name as screen name hid nothing. Jury asking during deliberation if I could have been lured the judge stated “well it takes 2 to tango.” But then told jury to decide by the evidence presented. But if all the chat archives had been presented the outcome might have been different instead of prison,probation and lifetime registration. Now I live in a run down studio apartment with my cat as my only friend.
Please email those to me, if you can, there seems to be a pact with the Sheriff Office here in my town. Me and a few Friends have been training our Sons in Basketball for two years now, We started outside at Basketball Courts, friends of our started bringing their kids to also train with our Kids, to the point, we have a group of kids training with our Kids.. Mind you all of the parents know of my past, they didn’t care about what happened 23 Years ago, it’s the person they know now that matters to them, and the impact we are having on their Kids. Well some people think its OK to be Judge, Jury and Executor. We were able to find a Privately owned Facility / Gym to train our kids out of.. Well over time we gained parents helping us…… One Parent ended up going through a Divorce, she was bringing her kids,….She decided to leave her husband, he has control issues. He right away blamed everyone around his wife of having an affair with her….LOL Now he is taking her through a dirty Divorce, He sees that her helping out with training isn’t something he wants her doing, because she is Happy doing it……. Her Boss also rents the Same Private Gymnasium as we do, But we were there a year b4 he came……. So Anyway, Her Husband texted her Boss my registration mug shot, and her Boss contacted the Owners of the Gym…Threatening to expose the Owners for allowing a “Predator” access to a facility that his after school program kids use. The Facility is Owned by a Nationally known Church……Its just a Property they own, and they Rent out Gym Usage time to anyone….We Start at 6PM, His Kids are Gone by 6PM….. Long story short he forced the Churches hand and they asked us to Leave Immediately….
His argument is, He wants to protect the kids, Only Problem I have with this guy is, He has been having Sex with one of his Karate Students since she was 15 and he was 42, She is now 26 and they are still in a relationship and living together, She runs one of his other after School Programs at another Facility, and Her Mother also works for this guy in another one of his Facilities… Many of his friends know of his relationship with this young lady, I guess
having friends in the Sheriffs office grants you immunity from prosecution.
He is the face for “child advocacy”
He has been living this lie for so long that he feels invincible and untouchable, knowing what he was doing was wrong he continued to have relations with this young girl. And her mother was OK with it, the guy lost his wife and Child over this relationship but NEVER faced the court system. How is this Justice? He is out there preaching “Protect our Kids” as he is commuting Lewd and Lascivious act with a minor….and still, with her now as an adult….She was also Charged with leaving a 6 year old Child in one of their Transport Vehicles in 2016, and today she is still driving those vehicles? I don’t even know if that’s possible to do…. He gives no one her name, she is known as “Mouse” that’s it, if you ask her for her name, she will tell you its Mouse and that’s all you need to know……
He is Good and I am Bad?