Sheriff’s Office spokesman slandered as “half truths” Taylor Cadle’s story of incest rape; her wrongful prosecution for reporting it, and her documented heroism in stopping her own incest rapist.
By Billy Townsend
“We refused comment to ‘The Center for Investigative Reporting’ because it became clear they were not interested in accurately reporting an investigation that occurred in 2016,” Wilder said in an email. “They produced a story with half-truths and a misleading narrative. Henry Cadle was arrested by our agency in 2017 for custodial sexual battery of a minor and he was convicted and sentenced to 17 years in Florida State Prison.” — Formerly honorable Polk County Sheriff’s spokesman Scott Wilder throwing away a career’s worth of dignity in one sentence. Quoted in Gary White’s astonishing Ledger article about Lakeland’s Taylor Cadle. Gary’s article builds on Rachel deLeon’s report on Taylor Cadle.
The Polk County Sheriff’s Office belligerently disbelieved a 13-year-old Lakeland girl reporting her multiple, very real incest/rapes by Henry Cadle — her uncle-turned-adopted father — in 2016. They charged her with fabricating her own very real incest rapes. They hauled her in front of a judge and forced her to apologize in writing to her incest rapist. Then they sent her right back to her incest rapist to be incest-raped again. The girl documented on her phone her own incest rape as it happened by side of the road in 2017 in an unbelievable act of composure and courage.
Look this passage that follows in the eye. Note the bold, although it’s all bold, really. And think about this the next time Grady Judd does his fake country minstrel show about protecting kids and tries to sell you a stupid signed cowboy hat at your Leadership Lakeland or Leadership Polk or Rotary or Kiwanis meeting. (You’ll all still line up for the selfies and cowboy hats anyway, which is pathetic.)
When Cadle parked near the junction of Rockridge Road and Deen Still Road in North Lakeland and left the truck, Taylor took a quick photo of the radio’s clock. She recorded a video snippet of Cadle walking outside the truck. As her father ordered her to lie with her head on the center console, Taylor surreptitiously snapped photos while Cadle exposed himself.
A quick glance confirmed that Taylor had captured at least one incriminating image. Cadle barked at her to put the phone away, and she said she was just closing some apps. She worried that if Cadle realized she had taken photos, he would discard her phone and she would lose the evidence she needed and she would be “trapped in a house with a monster until I was 18.”
Taylor, who weighed about 80 pounds, considered trying to fight off the 200-pound Cadle, but a thought occurred to her: “I told myself, in my mind, basically, ‘If I’m going to get this evidence to somebody, I have to be alive for it.’ So I let it go — just kind of sat there and held it in.
Taylor Cadle then risked more arrest and prosecution to report her incest rapist to same detectives who forced all this on her with their brutality and incompetence. Note the bold.
When Cadle’s truck arrived at their isolated home, Taylor volunteered to walk the family’s two dogs — not a task she normally performed — so that she could be alone with her phone. She confirmed that she had captured images that would incriminate Cadle.
She prepared to call 911.
“So I walked the dogs, and basically, in my mind, I was like, ‘I’m not going to do this. I’m not going to do this. If I do this, they’re not going to believe me again,’” she said. “I had probably a 5-, 10-minute conversation with myself, whether or not I was going to do this. I finally worked up the courage to do it, because I knew once I dialed it and clicked ‘call,’ there was no going back at that point. And again — now or never.”
Only by enduring all that, and acting with super human self-possession and courage,could young teen Taylor Cadle earn the right to be free of her incest rapist father Henry Cadle, her prosecutor Jerry Hill¹, and her “sheriff” Grady Judd.
And even that can’t earn basic public respect and decency and contrition from Grady Judd today.
Grady Judd’s official position on Taylor Cadle: “They produced a story with half-truths and a misleading narrative.”
Judd’s office does not dispute a single specific fact, document, taped interrogation excerpt, or word uttered by Taylor Cadle or Rachel deLeon. The documented record is incontrovertible.
And yet Grady Judd’s office is still accusing Taylor Cadle of “half” lying in its official statements. This is dark, dark, dark and disgusting public statement from Grady’s formerly honorable spokesman Scott Wilder:
“We refused comment to ‘The Center for Investigative Reporting’ because it became clear they were not interested in accurately reporting an investigation that occurred in 2016,” Wilder said in an email. “They produced a story with half-truths and a misleading narrative. Henry Cadle was arrested by our agency in 2017 for custodial sexual battery of a minor and he was convicted and sentenced to 17 years in Florida State Prison.”
What are the half-lies, Scott? Name one.
Let’s get specific, Scott.
Identify a specific half-lie.
Is it a half-lie that Cadle’s adopted father ordered her to prepare for the incest rape that your agency caused by putting her headon the center console? Or was it maybe the driver’s seat instead?
Is this a half-lie?
As her father ordered her to lie with her head on the center console, Taylor surreptitiously snapped photos while Cadle exposed himself.
Is this a half-lie?
The NewsHour story included audio of [Det. Melissa] Turnage interviewing Taylor.
“If you’re mad because you got your phone taken away, let’s say that now and be done with it,” Turnage said in a flat tone. “Do you want to go live back in foster care? Because more than likely, if he’s arrested, they’re not going to let you stay there. But if it’s not the truth, you’re fixing to hurt a lot of people.”
Is this a half-lie?
From the beginning, Taylor said, Turnage spoke to her as if she were an adult, showing no compassion or sensitivity to her allegations.
“She looked me in my face numerous times and told me I was lying, that there was no evidence, that they couldn’t find anything, that I was going to go back to foster care, that I was turning everybody’s world upside down,” Taylor said. “She never once listened to me, and from the moment that I met her to the last time I had ever spoken with her, she was rude. She spoke to me like I was an adult. There was never a time where she tried to be gentle, tried to see things from my eyes, or anything like that.”
Is it a half-lie that Melissa Turnage still works at your agency, but that you’re dragging your feet in providing her personnel file to Gary White? I want it, too.
And I have a personal suspicion, knowing how Grady rolls, that no disciplinary or corrective action, or training, or personal reflection of any kind has ever occurred as a result of this ongoing comprehensive atrocity.
But I don’t know that. To say otherwise would be a half-lie.
I don’t traffic in half-lies; so hopefully Scott, if you have a shred anything left that once made you Scott, you’ll show us the disciplinary or corrective action, or training, or personal reflection of any kind that occurred as a result of this comprehensive atrocity.
1
The date of Taylor Cadle’s prosecution in 2016 makes it likely, but not certain, that Jerry Hill was State Attorney when she was forced into court. The other possibility is current State Attorney Brian Haas.
My 6 year old daughter was being molested by her father, paternal aunt and paternal grandmother. My daughter told me her father sticks something inside her that hurt and she didn’t know what it was as she sobbed and said she was sorry, mommy. I called the PCSO. I took my daughter to Lakeland Regional Children’s hospital where they completed a rape kit and spoke to my daughter alone and she told the nurses and Dr. the same scenario. The staff told me my daughter 99.9% had chlamydia, an acute UTI infection that was almost to her kidneys. My daughter told me her father, grandma and aunt been molesting her for several years. My daughter told CPI about this with the state attorney and 3 others behind glass, my daughter could not see them. They concluded that my daughter was coached and brainwashed to believe her father, aunt and grandmother did these incest crimes to her. They did not believe my daughter and removed her from my custody bc no dna was in the rape kit. They said my daughter was a pathological liar. My daughter has to be molested by her father because if she tells anyone she is already considered a pathological liar. I never coached my daughter. I would never make up something so horrible to just to have sole custody of her. That scenario is a mothers worst nightmare and fear. My daughter simply told the truth and no one believed her. So sad and horrible for a little girl to be ripped away from her mother because her father did not want to go to prison, nor her aunt and grandmother. Her innocence was taken from her and no one believed her but me, her mother, and the staff at Lakelands Children’s Hospital. Children do not make up such things. It was injustice and has ruined so many lives to save criminals from going to prison. My mother died after all the stress, I morn a living daughter, but my brain believes that she is dead. All because her father paid his attorney to flip this on me and attempt to turn me into a criminal. I have never been to jail. He has been to jail for battery on Leo and domestic violence battery. This happened 3 years ago. I emailed Grady Judd, DeSantis, the FBI. This disgusting criminal pad his way out and my daughter is probably getting molested every day. So sad and all because of the PCSO detective and state attorney did not believe my daughter because she told the scenario too well. Plus her father is evil and paid his way out. God knows what happened and Vengeance is the Lords. May God have mercy on those child molesters souls.