Disney worker watched child porn at work while writing sermon May 16, 2013

A custodial manager at Disney’s Port Orleans resort is accused of watching child porn at work while writing an Easter sermon for a Sanford church where he is the pastor.

Cedric Eugene Cuthbert, 49, pastor of the Historic St. James African Methodist Episcopal Church in Sanford, worked for Disney for more than 7 years before his arrest. He has since been fired.

An employee-relations manager at Disney was alerted last month when Cuthbert tried to access several blocked websites from his work computer, the manager told Orange County deputies.

Disney’s monitoring system takes screen shots of employee computers every three seconds and recorded Cuthbert writing an Easter Sunday church sermon on John chapter 13 verses 1-35 and Psalm 148 while loading pornographic YouTube videos involving teenage girls.

That portion of the book of John tells the story of Jesus’ prediction of Judas’ betrayal and Psalm 148 tells all people to praise the Lord above all else.

Cuthbert faces charges of possession of material including sexual conduct by a child and soliciting a child for unlawful sexual conduct using computer services or devices.

According to his arrest affidavit, Cuthbert worked an overnight shift at the Disney resort from 10 p.m. to 8 a.m.

He logged in with his employee credentials during a time when no other employees would have been at work, deputies said.

After watching one video, Cuthbert sent a message to the person who posted the video to YouTube that said, “You are so cute!… Keep making vids! Send me a private vid longer, I am a big fan of yours!”

When he got another video he said, “NICE FIND! THANKS for Sharing!!!”

Cuthbert is being held in the Orange County Jail without bail.

Man busted after acknowledging he molested child ……. on Facebook April 21, 2013

OCALA – A 36-year-old man arrested Thursday by an Ocala police detective for sexual battery on a child younger than 12 was arrested Friday by a Marion County Sheriff’s Office detective for another sexual offense on a different victim.

Ocala police said the victim in the first case, now a teenager, told an official at the Kimberly’s Center for Child Protection that when she was about 4 or 5 she was molested by Mark L. Franklin. In a Facebook chat with Franklin, she asked him about the incident and he told her he prayed for forgiveness and was no longer a monster and was now a better person, according to reports.

Detective Jorge Fernandez developed probable cause for Franklin’s arrest.

On Thursday, Officer Joe Kelly saw Franklin at a park in northwest Ocala and took him to the police department for questioning. Franklin told Fernandez about the Facebook posting but denied molesting the girl. Franklin was arrested and was taken to the Marion County Jail.

On Friday, MCSO Detective Bobby Levay charged Franklin with two counts of sexual battery stemming from a 2005 case in which Franklin allegedly molested a girl several times from when she was about 2 or 3 until she was in seventh grade. Levay said Franklin was about 14 or 15 at the time of the first reported incidents and that when the victim was in the seventh grade, he was about 26.

Franklin denied the allegations.

Police post ‘sexual predator’ road signs outside homes of convicted rapists and child molesters April 18, 2013

 

The sheriff of Bradford County, Florida, decided the reflective signs, which have each offender’s name, should be planted on the roadways outside the houses of convicted sexual predators to ward off children. The department already sends out notifications on Facebook and sends officers to warn neighbors door-to-door when a sexual predator moves in.

7 boys say Florida youth football and basketball coach tried to molest them April 2, 2013

ORLANDO, Fla. – More victims have come forward accusing a longtime youth coach of lewd acts, and now police fear there could be even more alleged victims.

Orlando police said a total of 7 boys have said their coach tried to molest them. Several boys claim the incidents happened inside the Lorna Doone park bathroom, authorities said.

Police arrested Jeffery McWhorter, 54, for lewd acts. The volunteer football and basketball coach with the City of Orlando youth leagues told Local 6 that he didn’t do anything wrong.

“I didn’t do nothing to no kids,” said McWhorter as he was being hauled to jail Friday. “I don’t know what they’re talking about.”

According to the arrest affidavit, the allegations come from three brothers who claimed “Coach Jeff” offered them money to perform a sex act starting at $40. “Coach Jeff continued to offer money and offered up to $100″ when one child refused, the arrest affidavit said.

One of McWhorter’s relatives spoke to Local 6 about the allegations.

“I feel like they’re being coached. He hasn’t touched anyone,” said the relative, who asked to not be identified. “He has been a coach for 32 years. I feel like if he wanted to touch on children, he would have done it because pedophiles don’t wake up one day and decide they want to touch on children, they have a pattern.”

McWhorter admitted to police that he asked a child to escort him to the bathroom where he performed a sex act on himself in front of that child, police said. However, he denies doing anything more.

“I never did nothing that nobody else wouldn’t have did,” said McWhorter on Friday.

McWhorter has no previous criminal record that would indicate he would harm a child. His family thinks the brothers who made the initial allegations have a grudge because they said they were kicked off the team last season.

However, since the three brothers came forward, four other boys have also said they were victimized.

Authorities are asking parents to talk with their children to make sure they weren’t victimized.

A city spokeswoman confirms McWhorter has been suspended from his coaching duties and passed a background check prior to being about to volunteer for the city.

Sex offender lured girl to home, gave her $2, performed lewd act March 28, 2013

ORLANDO,  Fla. —A convicted felon faces charges in Orange County after  investigators said he lured a 13-year-old girl to his home, gave her money and  performed a lewd act in front of her.

Clifford Murray, 39, is  accused of kidnapping and lewd conduct. Authorities said he lured one of two  girls playing near Florida Mall back to his apartment.

The 13-year-old, who was  looking for turtles with her friend, said she went with Murray because he said  he would give her money.

When the girl went to  Murray’s Landstreet Road apartment, investigators say Murray performed a lewd  act in front of her and asked if she would join him. The girl told him, “No  thank you,” and left the apartment, according to investigators.

Murray has two prior child  molestation convictions. He’s now being held without bond at the Orange County  Jail.

Man with gun, duct tape and machete in his truck tries to have sex with child March 23, 2013

ORLANDO,  Fla. —A 54-year-old Ormond Beach man is accused of trying to meet a minor  for sex.

Investigators said William  Fahner was arrested Thursday at a Wendy’s restaurant in Daytona Beach. They said  he thought he was meeting a child and the child’s father there for sex.

Instead, officers were  waiting for Fahner. They quickly took him into custody and booked him into the  Volusia County Branch Jail.

Investigators said Fahner  believed he was chatting over the Internet to a father willing to offer his  child for sex. He was really corresponding with an undercover officer.

Fahner had a loaded gun in  the console of his truck, along with a machete, duct tape and rope in the back  seat.

Fahner faces charges of  using a computer to solicit a child for sex, traveling to meet a child for sex  and other crimes.

Disney World theme park employee accused of sexually abusing 2 children …. WTF? February 23, 2013

ORANGE  COUNTY, Fla. —A 20-year-old man is accused of sexually abusing two  children.

Matthew Sepik is accused  of molesting two children under the age of 12.

One victim told  investigators the abuse began in 2007 when Sepik was 14 years old.

According to an arrest  report, Sepik admitted to molesting the girl while being questioned by  deputies.

Sepik also admitted that  he and the male victim would play with each other’s genitalia.

According to Disney  officials, Sepik was suspended from his job at the theme park without pay  pending the outcome of the investigation.  A spokeswoman would not say what he  was responsible for or how long he worked for there.

Sepik knew his victims and  did not meet them at the theme park, investigators said.

He was booked in the  Orange County jail and charged with two counts of sexual battery on a child  under 12.

Florida man faces 3,000-year prison sentence in child pornography case February 22, 2013

STUART — A Hobe Sound man could face more than 3,000 years of jail time after  a judge denied a motion by his attorney to dismiss his case that charges him  with 200 counts of child pornography.

Matthew Taby’s attorney, Richard Kibbey, argued for dismissal on the grounds  that the law, which attaches a minimum of 10 years of jail time per count, was  unconstitutional.

“If the statute was blatantly unconstitutional, I would have the authority  and, maybe, obligation to find it to be unconstitutional,” said Martin Circuit  Judge William Roby at Wednesday’s hearing. “But I do not find the statute to be  unconstitutional.”

Taby, a 50-year-old who worked in engineering at Pratt & Whitney, was  arrested in May after investigators reported finding more than 1,000 images and  videos of children engaged in sexual activities on an external hard drive  attached to his laptop computer, according to an affidavit.

Kibbey argued that the law charging Taby with multiple second-degree felonies  was “overkill” and meant to punish those who victimized children, not the  “passive collectors” of images and videos involving children.

“How does that reconcile itself in an argument, that (a) person could be  facing death in prison for merely looking at dirty pictures?” Kibbey said.  “There’s nowhere, there’s not a hint that, that was the legislators’  (intent).”

But assistant state attorney Vicki Nichols said each image and video was a  separate crime and should be punished as such.

“We’re allowed to overkill because (Taby) committed a thousand crimes,”  Nichols said. “He’s the reason he’s facing thousands of years (in jail).”

Roby, whose decision pushes Taby’s case to its first trial hearing March 19,  said he thought whether or not the statute was unconstitutional would be a  decision for the court of appeals, not a trial judge.

Kibbey said if he appeals the decision, the three-judge panel in appellate  court would be more likely to make a decision about the constitutionality of the  law which has incarcerated Taby for nine months.

“It’s not over yet by a long shot,” Kibbey said.

Canadian pro tennis player arrested in Florida for attempting to have sex with 13-year-old girl

BRADENTON, Fla. — Manatee County deputies arrested Canadian professional tennis player Pierre-Ludovic Duclos-Lanier on Thursday night for attempting to have sex with a 13-year-old girl.

Authorities say Duclos, who as of Friday morning was ranked as the 610th best men’s tennis player in the world, was talking with the girl on her cell phone.

Thursday a Manatee County detective assumed the identity of the girl using her phone. Investigators say the 27-year-old Duclos, better known as Pierre-Ludovic Duclos, continued to solicit the girl to engage in sex and sent a photo of his penis.

Duclos then agreed to pick the victim up at an agreed location and then return to his home to have sex with her. When Duclos showed up to meet the girl, Crimes Against Children Detectives arrested him.

Authorities say during questioning Duclos made a full confession.

Duclos is charged with Use of a Computer to Seduce/Solicit/Entice a Child to Commit Sex Acts, Travel to Seduce/Solicit/Entice a Child to Commit Sex Acts, Transmission of Material Harmful to Minors by Electronic Device or Equipment, and Attempted Lewd and Lascivious Battery.

Duclos is being held without bond at the Manatee County Jail.

Florida man used neighbor’s Wi-Fi to download child porn February 2, 2013

A Palm Bay man stands accused of downloading more than 3,500 images of child pornography using a neighbor’s wireless Internet connection.

Juan Gonzalez, 59, made an initial court appearance in Orlando on Wednesday and a federal judge ordered he be held without bond, federal documents show.

The case started Nov. 1 when U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Homeland Security Investigations Special Agent Kenneth McLenahan discovered an IP address of a “user who had image and movie files that have been previously identified as child pornography in other investigations,” arrest documents say.

He checked the IP address against a national log of addresses known to be involved in the dissemination of child pornography, and found the address had been logged more than 470 times from May to October 2012, according to court documents.

Federal agents tracked the IP address to the 900 block of Northeast Crocus Street in Palm Bay and obtained a search warrant. The owner of the home told authorities he had an open wireless Internet signal, and authorities searched his computers and found no evidence of crimes against children.

Investigators talked to the closest next-door neighbor, who they identified as Gonzalez, and who records show eventually admitted to downloading the images. Gonzalez told investigators “he felt relieved the he was caught because ‘it’s over,’” the documents said.

Police found more than 3,500 images on Gonzalez’s computers and hard drives. Gonzalez is accused of receiving and possessing sexually explicit images of minors and child pornography in interstate commerce.