Archive for December, 2011

Polk County, Florida, December 17, 2011

Undercover agents with the Polk County  Sheriff’s Office are packed into a rented house in an upscale subdivision near Davenport, Florida. Upstairs and down, cops in “T” shirts and jeans, sit cross-legged on beds, balancing  computers on their knees.

Arrayed around the dining room table, they scowl as they type. The look on their faces is made even more intense by the wierd glow of the LCD screens. The glossy, plastic lids of their laptops square off across the table: Viao vs Apple, Toshiba vs HP.

The week-long internet sting has not been as productive as they had hoped:  “Another one bites the dust…” a veteran detective complained.  Seated on the living room sofa, hunched over a laptop computer on the coffee table, he shakes his head and makes a sour face.  “As soon as they realize the house is in Polk County, they break off.”

One man, chatting online with a detective posing as a teen girl, offered to pay cab fare, if the child would travel to a neighboring county to meet him. Polk County, it seems, has gained a reputation as a “speed trap” for child molesters.

At 8:30 PM there are sounds other than the tapping of keyboards. Suddenly,  booming footsteps are heard from the second floor and creaking sounds emanate from the popcorn cieling above us. Heavy units from the Polk County Sheriff’s Office are on the move. It has been a seven-hour, shut-out. Now, they are restless and hungry for action.

The suspect has been traveling for hours from St.Augustine, and he is due to arrive around 9 PM.  Black vests are slipped over shoulders. and the menacing ornaments of law enforcement are hung from their bodies: Pepper spray canisters, stun guns, tasers and cuffs.  Hand guns are holstered, unholstered, checked and rechecked.

Agents move to positions near the front door. All eyes are on the single laptop set on its own table.  The screen  displays a grid of boxes, each frames the view of a different camera.  One pans the cul-de-sac street that stretches out before the sting house, others combine to cover he entire yard, front and back.

The call comes in from a patrol unit.  He’s blocks away now, and soon headlights swing around toward the street camera and slide slowly forward.  There is a flash behind he curtains of the front window as he pulls into he driveway. In the silence, someone’s knee pops.

On the first knock, the door is yanked open and agents charge forward.  From our protected place, we can hear shouted commands: “Get on the ground…Don’t move!”  There is a pile-up on the front lawn.

The suspect tried to run, and swung his fists at the officers.  One man points the stun gun at his belly and launches two darts with their coiled leads spiraling out from his hand.  He is grabbed from behind and falls backward on top of an officer.  Now he will be charged with Resisting Arrest and Battery on Law Enforcement as well as Soliciting a Child for Sex.

He flops around for a moment with the beefy forearm of an agent still wrapped around his neck.

Ten minutes later, they bring him in.  He is Richard Newell, a thirty-five, year-old man who has travelled 180 miles to meet a thirteen year-old girl.  As he is searched, plastic cuffs are attached to his ankles forming a makeshift set of shackles.  A detective waves his hands in front of his face: “Why did you resist… are you stupid?”

Newell, looking groggy and confused, will be taken to the hospital for a medical check-up before being booked into the Polk County Jail.  He is one of only seven suspects taken in this operation - a mere fraction of the numbers pulled in on previous stings.

Word is out.  Pedophiles willing to travel to have sex with a child, are steering clear of Polk County, Florida.

Nathan Williams, 38, of Lakeland, contemplates his fate.  Sheriff Grady Judd’s Cyber Crime Unit, roped him in on December 15.