Weekly Update #51
Dear Members and Advocates:
When I first became involved with FAC, I fielded a lot of calls and emails from people caught up in “sex offender stings”. These “stings” are painted by law enforcement as operations seeking to catch adults trolling the internet for children to have sex with. Like most of the general public who didn’t know better, I believed these were actually dangerous, predatory people who were actively seeking out children. The people that were contacting us, though, told a different story. Many were on adult personals sites and dating apps looking for other adults. They started speaking with an adult, chats and emails are flowing, conversations become sexual and then at some point in the online relationship, out of nowhere, a minor gets thrown into the mix.
I probably owe an apology to the first few people I communicated with about these stings. When they told me they had absolutely no intention of soliciting a minor – the police pulled a bait and switch on them, I thought they were lying. Sure there are some dangerous predators out there, but as I spoke to more and more people and consistently kept hearing similar experiences from unrelated people, I realized something was very amiss.
Contrary to the scare stories that police were telling, these people were not out trolling the internet for children. These people were on adult classifieds or dating apps which require users to be over 18. They were not seeking out minors at all, nor was there an expectation they would find them on these adults-only apps. In most cases, it was the law enforcement officer (pretending to be a minor) who introduced the fictitious minor and induced the person into what they had no inclination to do in the first place. Then there are the more egregious cases, where the entire sexual conversation takes place while the person still thinks they are talking to an adult and when it comes to the threat of prosecution, the chats get taken out of context.
My next area of disbelief was why, under these circumstances, anyone would plead guilty to this horrible crime. Again, as I spoke to more and more people and consistently kept hearing similar experiences from unrelated people, I got my answer. The defendants were threatened with very long prison sentences unless they took a plea. Some were not given bond or couldn’t afford it, and after months of waiting through pre-trial continuances would take anything just to get out of jail. Most had no idea about the consequences of being registered as a sex offender at the time.
Discovering the truth about these stings taught me a couple lessons. First, sadly, is that you can’t always trust the police. I see Volusia County Sheriff, Mike Chitwood, making headlines for himself in a press conference today over “Operation Deviant Desire” and last month over “Operation Neptune” and have to wonder who is out there solving actual crimes if this guy is so busy manufacturing them. (Oh… and if anyone is wondering about Chitwood’s agenda, perhaps its that he announced a re-election bid a few months ago).
The second lesson I learned was that I shouldn’t pass judgement on anyone. There’s always more to a story and more to a person than this label offers. Whether we’re the ones affected, have a loved one who is, or even if someone randomly forwarded this email to you and you are learning about the Florida Action Committee for the first time, hopefully your eyes have been opened to a tremendous injustice and you’ll join our fight!
Reminder that the Monthly Membership call is scheduled for this Thursday Oct 3 at 8pm ET. Guest speaker is author and motivational speaker Travis Vining. He will share his journey from trauma to healing, and finding the “The Miracle in the Madness“.
Sincerely,
The Florida Action Committee
The giving season is upon us and everyone will be shopping. An easy, no fuss way to support the Florida Action Committee outreach is through Amazon Smile.
Amazon has made it very simple for you to designate a qualified, non-profit organization as your preferred recipient of support for any online purchases you make. The Amazon Smile program allows you to designate an approved non-profit organization to receive a portion of the funds you spend on the items that you purchase on Amazon. At no additional cost to you, your participation in this program is a useful way to financially assist the organizations that you already support.
We are pleased to let you know Justice Transitions (JT) is a 501(c)(3) that participates in the Amazon Smile program. JT supports and sponsors many projects through FAC. Funds donated through Amazon Smile go towards outreach and support projects, small grants and loans to homeless, indigent, elderly, and disabled registered citizens and their families, for basic needs.
This link will take you directly to smile.amazon.com to set up your personal Amazon account and select Justice Transitions in Sanford FL as your charity. You can then begin to make purchases using https://smile.amazon.com in order to be certain that Justice Transitions benefits from the purchases you make.
It’s that simple. So, please show your support by designating Justice Transitions (JT) in Sanford FL as your charity and support FAC Registered Citizen Outreach projects.
Reminders:
Sat Oct 5- Family Support Session in Central Broward County -11:00am-1:00pm -Seating is limited. RSVP early.
Sun Oct 13-Meet and Greet in Daytona (Volusia County) 3:00-5:00pm
Fri Oct 25 -Family Support Session in Tampa area at 7:00 pm.
Sat Oct 26-Workshop in Apopka from 1-4pm – Come ready to turn our stories into letters, presentations, and speeches.
For more information about these events, or to RSVP email [email protected] or call 904-452-8322. No children please.
SOME HEADLINES FROM THE WEEK
Operation ‘Deviant Desire’ – another Central Florida “Sting Operation”
Another Central Florida County is creating headlines and publicly patting themselves on the back for another “sex offender sting operation” (this one dubbed ‘Deviant Desire’) that arrested 11 people who would likely not have engaged with a minor for sex if not for the…
Did Sarasota Sheriff go too far on undercover sex sting?
The following Article by investigative reporter Noah Pransky appeared in Florida Politics today. We STRONGLY encourage you to post comments under the article and share it with your legislators. This practice by taking men who went online with NO INTENTION of engaging…
It’s why we have separation of powers.
After a former Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University professor was released by Judge R. Michael Hutcheson on supersedeas bond, (allowing the defendant to be free while he appeals his case), Volusia County Sheriff Mike Chitwood took it personally and sent some tweets…
Osceola County conducts “Operation ‘Parking Lot Party’”
Several law enforcement agencies teamed up to arrest 67 noncompliant sexual predators and sexual offenders during a seven-month operation called “Parking Lot Party,” a news release said. The Osceola County Sheriff’s Office, United States Marshals Service, Florida…
The stings are devisive and in my opinion all about money an power. I was caught up in sting, perusing a crraigs list looking for home appliances, somehow got into a conversation with a guy who said he was pimping his child out. I had no interest in the son, he asked me severral times thru email, “what would You like to do with him” he insisted and wondered how this guy could do this. Having just pereviuously worked overseas for 5 years knew nothing of what was going on hee in Floida. Anyhow I thought I could be a good citizen and “OUT Him” so I fell fo the bait. The child never existed. I just wanted to gain info on who this guy was and report him. Fast forward to attoney selection, I picked a attoney who Bagged about how effective he was defenbding a women who had allegedly mudeeed her daughter. He was defending her prro bono, while charging me 4x the next highest fee. Well, Cheney, went on to show he had NO intention of defending me. At one point he said to me, Yourr buddies in the bar may believe you stoy but i dont. I should have fiec him then.
Other that the HUGE fees that do little attorneys secue fom the things I am wondering about anothe money trail. There ae seveal PRIVATE pisons in florida and I believe one attorrney in Volusia is an ex parrtner of a sitting judge. Who is to say that the Judges whom may be involved in parrtnerships with these private prisons, may be enforcing longer prison sentences to keep their cash flow going.
I have never head the trail of cash discussed, but for example last month Sheriff Chitwood of Volusia county FL orchastrated several stings and had ads running for his re election notinng the wondefull job he is doing.
I have fought traffic tickets before where entrapment was involved and won. Why is it so difficult to win on these cases where it’s so obvious it’s nothing more than entrapment?
I am trying to change my Amazon Smile donations from the organization I currently have selected to Justice Transitions. I cannot find it anywhere in the list of charities on Amazon Smile.
I think this shouldn’t be allowed & it’s horrible for law enforcement to be doing things like this & then to be so proud of it is horrible it just feeds to the scare & anger of people in our communities that don’t no the whole truth, my son was on an adult site chatting and was sent a chat link he clicked on and he got a bunch of pop ups he believes is how child porn got save to his phone and is how he got charged police also wrote te confessed to it when he actually didn’t what he did was answer questions without an attorney thinking he had done nothing wrong they twisted around his words & said that was a confession he never searched to down load any child pornography prosecutor even agreed on that but since child porn was saved on his phone & we didn’t have money to prove how it saved he got scared into a plea deal also or he’d have to do years so this is very common & from what I’ve seen and been told the coos &syate always have the upper hand there’s really no way to win these battles my son was 22 years old not a bad person like most on the registry. Very heartbreaking to hear these stories I really wish things would change.
They also claimed that I confessed when I didn’t. My lawyer filed for the audio recording and was told the audio recording got corrupted and was no longer available. My lawyer told me that was what they were going to do. He said they do it every time, claiming the audio recording got corrupted. But as officers, their word is taken as fact by the courts, so they can say I confessed when I didn’t, and the judge automatically believes them.