{"id":6794,"date":"2020-03-17T12:32:00","date_gmt":"2020-03-17T16:32:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/?p=6794"},"modified":"2020-03-17T12:32:22","modified_gmt":"2020-03-17T16:32:22","slug":"detectives-arrest-16-men-during-undercover-operation-focusing-on-those-who-prey-upon-children-online","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/2020\/03\/17\/detectives-arrest-16-men-during-undercover-operation-focusing-on-those-who-prey-upon-children-online\/","title":{"rendered":"Detectives arrest 16 men during undercover operation focusing on those who prey upon children online"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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PCSO undercover detectives and partnering agencies conducted a seven-day undercover operation from March 10th through March 16th<\/sup>, 2020, during which detectives posed as girls and boys online\u2014on social media platforms and online dating sites\u2014to investigate those who prey upon and travel to meet children for unlawful sexual activity.\u00a0Detectives from the Desoto, Hillsborough, Lake, and Osceola Sheriff\u2019s Offices, and the Tampa and Altamonte Springs Police Departments, also participated in the operation. The suspects communicated with and solicited who they thought were children between the ages of 12 and 14 for sex acts. Most of them showed up to an undercover location in Polk County at separate times to meet who they thought were children, to sexually batter them. Some of them transmitted pornographic images and solicited the children online, and were arrested for that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n


In all, detectives arrested 16 suspects<\/strong>, including a registered sexual predator; a Navy veteran who works for Disney Vacation Club; an assistant youth soccer coach; a grandfather with 9 grandchildren; and two full-time college students. The oldest suspect is 59 and the youngest is 21.<\/p>\n\n\n\n


The 16 arrested suspects face a total of 42 felony charges\u00a0<\/strong>which include: traveling to meet a minor for sex, attempted lewd battery, use of a computer to seduce a child, transmission of material harmful to a child, and violation of probation. Those arrested includes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1.\u00a044-year-old Jorge Hernandez Lopez<\/strong>\u00a0of Davenport. On March 10, 2020, Lopez \u2013 using the profile name \u201cFun4boys!\u201d – engaged in an online conversation with an undercover detective who was posing as a 14-year-old boy. Upon telling the \u201cboy\u201d that he was 34-years-old, and learning the \u201cboy\u201d was 14, he said, \u201ccool. I\u2019m into young. I\u2019m ok with that tbh.\u201d He asked the \u201cboy\u201d to send photos, and asked what his sexual experience was. He asked for the address to the undercover location and then arrived that evening, where he was arrested without incident. He told deputies that he\u2019s been curious about young boys and that he\u2019s chatted online with them. He told detectives that he\u2019s currently unemployed.
Lopez was booked into the Polk County Jail and charged with:\u2022 One count Traveling to Meet a Minor For Sex (F-2)\u2022 One count Attempted Lewd Battery (F-3)\u2022 One count Use of a Computer to Seduce a Child (F-2)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2.\u00a033-year-old Donald Paul Diem, Jr.\u00a0<\/strong>of Winter Garden. On March 10, 2020, Diem \u2013 using the profile name \u201cPauleD\u201d – engaged in an online conversation with an undercover detective who was posing as a 14-year-old girl. He asked the \u201cgirl\u201d to send photos of herself in the shower, and asked what she wanted to do with him. He asked for the address to the undercover location and then drove there in his Tesla that evening, where he was arrested without incident. He told deputies that he\u2019s married with two children, a Navy veteran, and employed at Disney Vacation Club.
Diem was booked into the Polk County Jail and charged with:\u2022 One count Traveling to Meet a Minor For Sex (F-2)\u2022 One count Attempted Lewd Battery (F-3)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

3.\u00a028-year-old Jose Salgado\u00a0<\/strong>of Plant City. On March 11, 2020, Salgado engaged in an online conversation with an undercover detective who was posing as a 13-year-old girl. He asked the \u201cgirl\u201d to send photos of herself to him and discussed what he wanted to do with her sexually when he arrived. He said he was okay with her age if she was okay with his. He asked for the address to the undercover location and then drove there that evening, where he was arrested without incident. He told deputies that he\u2019s an assistant youth soccer coach, and is a pest control technician.
Salgado was booked into the Polk County Jail and charged with:\u2022 One count Traveling to Meet a Minor For Sex (F-2)\u2022 One count Attempted Lewd Battery (F-3)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

4.\u00a044-year-old William Russel Bronson\u00a0<\/strong>of Orlando. On March 11, 2020, Bronson \u2013 using email\u00a0rustybronson75.rb@gmail.com<\/a>\u00a0– engaged in an online conversation with an undercover detective who was posing as a 14-year-old boy. He asked the \u201cboy\u201d to send photos of his genitalia to him and discussed what he wanted to do with him sexually in his SUV and that they could \u201cmess around\u201d so the boy could \u201cget some experience.\u201d He said he needed to eat first before driving to pick the boy up because \u201cmy girl cooked and will be mad if I don\u2019t eat.\u201d He asked for the address to the undercover location and then drove there that evening, where he was arrested without incident. He told deputies that he\u2019s unemployed.\u00a0Bronson was booked into the Polk County Jail and charged with:\u2022 One count Traveling to Meet a Minor For Sex (F-2)\u2022 One count Attempted Lewd Battery (F-3)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00a05.\u00a029-year-old Maxwell Anthony\u00a0<\/strong>of Orlando. On March 13, 2020, Anthony engaged in an online conversation with an undercover detective who was posing as a 13-year-old girl. He told her what he wanted to do with her sexually. He asked for the address to the undercover location and then arrived in an Uber, where he was arrested without incident. He had condoms in his pocket. His criminal history includes previous arrests for drug possession and failure to appear.\u00a0Anthony was booked into the Polk County Jail and charged with:\u2022 One count Traveling to Meet a Minor For Sex (F-2)\u2022 One count Attempted Lewd Battery (F-3)
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

6.\u00a030-year-old Jimmie Rush Jr.\u00a0<\/strong>of Lorida. On March 12, 2020, Rush engaged in an online conversation with an undercover detective who was posing as a 14-year-old boy. He sent nude photos to the \u201cboy\u201d and told him what he wanted to do with him sexually. He asked for the address to the undercover location and then drove there the next day, where he was arrested without incident. He told detectives he works in a restaurant at Universal Orlando.\u00a0Rush was booked into the Polk County Jail and charged with:\u2022 One count Traveling to Meet a Minor For Sex (F-2)\u2022 One count Attempted Lewd Battery (F-3)\u2022 One count Transmission of Material Harmful to a Minor (F-3)\u2022 One count Use of Computer to Seduce a Child (F-3)\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

7.\u00a022-year-old Matthew Budd\u00a0<\/strong>of Auburndale. On March 13, 2020, Budd engaged in an online conversation with an undercover detective who was posing as a 14-year-old boy. He told the \u201cboy\u201d he worked at Legoland and if the boy could get a ride to the theme park they could \u201cmake out and stuff\u201d in the bathrooms and other areas of the park. He arranged to meet the boy when he got off work the next day near the theme park. He told detectives he works at the Legoland hotel as a dishwasher. His criminal history includes previous arrests for lewd\/lascivious battery, sexual battery, cyber stalking, battery domestic violence, burglary, petit theft, criminal mischief, DWLSR, and violation of probation.\u00a0Budd was booked into the Polk County Jail and charged with:\u2022 One count Traveling to Meet a Minor For Sex (F-2)\u2022 One count Attempted Lewd Battery (F-3)\u2022 One count Transmission of Material Harmful to a Minor (F-3)\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

8.\u00a059-year-old Mitchell Gaunt\u00a0<\/strong>of Apopka. On March 13, 2020, Gaunt engaged in an online conversation with an undercover detective who was posing as a 14-year-old girl. The next day he showed up and was arrested. He told detectives he has 9 grandchildren, and recently retired and moved to Florida.\u00a0Gaunt was booked into the Polk County Jail and charged with:\u2022 One count Traveling to Meet a Minor For Sex (F-2)\u2022 One count Attempted Lewd Battery (F-3)\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

9.\u00a021-year-old Christian Buford\u00a0<\/strong>of Lakeland. On March 14, 2020, Buford engaged in an online conversation with an undercover detective who was posing as a 12-year-old girl. He asked for the address to the undercover location and then drove there, where he was arrested without incident. He told detectives he is a student at Liberty University, in flight school in Lakeland. He said since he was only going to be receiving oral sex from the girl, he thought it was okay.\u00a0Buford was booked into the Polk County Jail and charged with:\u2022 One count Traveling to Meet a Minor For Sex (F-2)\u2022 One count Attempted Lewd Battery (F-3)\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

10.\u00a026-year-old Miguel Caez Jr.\u00a0<\/strong>of Davenport. On March 13, 2020, Caez engaged in an online conversation with an undercover detective who was posing as a 13-year-old girl. He told her what he wanted to do with her sexually and asked for the address to the undercover location and then took an Uber there the next day, where he was arrested without incident. He told detectives he is homeless. He\u2019s currently on probation and his criminal history includes 6 felonies and 2 misdemeanors, including arrests for battery domestic violence, forgery, and no valid DL.\u00a0\u00a0Caez was booked into the Polk County Jail and charged with:\u2022 One count Traveling to Meet a Minor For Sex (F-2)\u00b7\u00a0\u00a0One count Use of Computer to Seduce a Child (F-2)\u2022 One count Attempted Lewd Battery (F-3)\u00b7\u00a0\u00a0One count VOP (F-3)\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

11.\u00a027-year-old Nicholas Sydnes\u00a0<\/strong>of Oviedo. On March 15, 2020, Sydnes engaged in an online conversation with an undercover detective who was posing as a 14-year-old girl. He told her, \u201cI\u2019ll be honest, I\u2019m on [dating app] to either talk to girls about dirty things or meet up. Are you okay with that?\u201d He asked for the address to the undercover location and drove there, where he was taken into custody without incident. He brought condoms.\u00a0Sydnes was booked into the Polk County Jail and charged with:\u2022 One count Traveling to Meet a Minor For Sex (F-2)\u2022 One count Attempted Lewd Battery (F-3)\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

12.\u00a024-year-old Bhavya Shah\u00a0<\/strong>of Tampa. On March 15, 2020, Shah engaged in an online conversation with an undercover detective who was posing as a 14-year-old girl. He told her he was working on his Master\u2019s degree, to become a pharmacist. He asked her what kind of condoms she preferred, and when he arrived at the undercover location he had 2 condoms in his pocket. He asked if he could receive a \u201cticket\u201d instead of being arrested, so he could finish his thesis paper. He was taken into custody without incident.\u00a0Shah was booked into the Polk County Jail and charged with:\u2022 One count Traveling to Meet a Minor For Sex (F-2)\u2022 One count Attempted Lewd Battery (F-3)\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

13.\u00a028-year-old Eric Michael Chachick\u00a0<\/strong>of Ruskin. On March 13, 2020, Chachick engaged in an online conversation with an undercover detective who was posing as a 13-year-old girl. He sent her a picture of his genitalia and discussed having sex with her. He drove to a park near the undercover location but left without meeting the \u201cgirl.\u201d Detectives obtained a warrant for his arrest, and he was taken into custody on March 16, 2020, without incident.\u00a0Chachick was booked into the Hillsborough County Jail and charged with:\u2022 One count Use of Two-Way Communication Device to Commit a Felony (F-3)\u2022 One count Transmission of Material Harmful to a Minor (F-3)\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

14.\u00a048-year-old Paul Lagerblade\u00a0<\/strong>of Brooksville. On March 11, 2020, Lagerblade began engaging in an online conversation with an undercover detective who was posing as a 13-year-old girl. He had several conversations with her over the next few days, during which he discussed picking her up and taking her to a hotel room. Lagerblade also answered another advertisement \u2013 using email address\u00a0windyguitar462@gmail.com<\/a>\u00a0– posted by an undercover detective posing as a mom with a 13-year-old daughter. He told the \u201cmom\u201d he would pay $150.00 to have sex with her daughter. During the conversation, Lagerblade said, \u201cI really want to come over, but I wasn\u2019t honest with you\u2026I was arrested for trying to have sex with a minor and I did 6 years in prison for it. It was a police sting, and it was all because I answered an ad on Craigslist. It\u2019s obvious that I\u2019m attracted to underage girls, but because of what happened to me I\u2019m really nervous about this being a set up. I\u2019m sorry if I sound paranoid, but that\u2019s why I asked to see your daughter in a video call. I never want to go back to prison.\u201d Detectives obtained a warrant for his arrest, and he was taken into custody on March 16, 2020, without incident. According to the Florida Department of Corrections website, Lagerblade was arrested for attempted lewd and lascivious battery on a minor in July 2011 in Citrus County, and in 2012 was sentenced to 7 years, 6 months in prison. He was released in April 2018.\u00a0Lagerblade was booked into the Hernando County Jail and charged with:\u2022 Two counts Use of a Computer to Seduce a Child (F-3)\u2022 One count Use of a Computer to Solicit a Parent to Consent to the Participation of a Child Committing a Sex Act (F-3)\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

15.\u00a028-year-old Carlos Javier Torres-Torres\u00a0<\/strong>of Clermont. On March 12, 2020, Torres-Torres engaged in an online conversation with an undercover detective who was posing as a 13-year-old girl. He told her he would bring condoms so she wouldn\u2019t get pregnant. He drove to the undercover location but left when he saw people outside nearby. He accused the girl of \u201cplaying games\u201d with him, and he was hurt because he was going to be \u201cso loving\u201d to her. Detectives obtained a warrant for his arrest, and he was taken into custody on March 16, 2020, without incident.\u00a0Torres-Torres was booked into the Lake County Jail and charged with:\u2022 One count Traveling to Meet a Minor For Sex (F-2)\u2022 One count Attempted Lewd Battery (F-3)\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

16.\u00a039-year-old Jason Griffith\u00a0<\/strong>of Daytona Beach. On March 12, 2020, Griffith engaged in an online conversation with an undercover detective who was posing as a 13-year-old girl. He spent several days chatting with her and telling her the things he wanted to do to her, and sending her explicit photos of himself, and asking her to send him explicit photos of her. Detectives obtained a warrant for his arrest, and he was taken into custody on March 16, 2020, without incident.\u00a0Griffith was booked into the Volusia County Jail and charged with:\u2022 One count Use of Two-Way Communication Device to Commit a Felony (F-3)\u2022 Two counts Transmission of Material Harmful to a Minor (F-3)\u2022 Two counts Use of a Computer to Seduce a Child (F-3) <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

PCSO undercover detectives and partnering agencies conducted a seven-day undercover operation from March 10th through March 16th, 2020, during which detectives posed as girls and boys online\u2014on social media platforms… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"12","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","inline_featured_image":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"wpai_generated_summary":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"dois","default_image_id":71799,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[12,14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6794","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6794","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6794"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6794\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6794"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6794"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6794"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}