Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis recently signed legislation meant to protect minors by targeting child predators.
One of the measures will establish a program to provide law enforcement with grants to conduct online sting operations.
"There is created within the department the Online Sting Operations Grant Program to award grants to local law enforcement agencies to support their creation of sting operations to target individuals online preying upon children or attempting to do so," the measure reads. "The department shall annually award to local law enforcement agencies any funds specifically appropriated for the grant program to cover expenses related to computers, electronics, software, and other related necessary supplies."
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Another measure the governor signed declares it to be a third-degree felony for an adult to send sexual communications to a minor.
"An adult who engages in a pattern of communication to a minor that includes explicit and detailed verbal descriptions or narrative accounts of sexual activity, sexual conduct, or sexual excitement and that is harmful to minors commits a felony of the third degree, punishable as provided in s. 775.082, s. 775.083, or s. 775.084," the text declares. "A person's ignorance of a minor's age, a minor's misrepresentation of his or her age, a bona fide belief of a minor's age, or a minor's consent may not be raised as a defense in a prosecution for a violation of this section."
A Wednesday tweet on the @GovRonDeSantis X account declares, "Today I signed legislation to ensure grooming and other child-directed sexual offenses are punished severely. I will always stand to protect the innocence of children."
"Thank you, @GovRonDeSantis, for protecting innocent children from predatory abuse and sexual exploitation," Florida first lady Casey DeSantis said in a tweet.
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A former FBI contractor from Arlington, Virginia, has been indicted for allegedly grooming dozens of children and soliciting child pornography.
Brett William Janes, who began working for the FBI in May and previously worked for another unspecified intelligence agency, engaged with "roughly a dozen" young boys over Discord and Snapchat.
According to the Department of Justice, Janes groomed his victims by flashing his badge and "telling them he worked for a U.S. intelligence agency before repeatedly threatening suicide if the minors did not continue to communicate with him."
In one instance, the former FBI contractor successfully enticed a young boy he had met via the video game "Valorant" to "strip and masturbate over a live video Discord call," both by paying him hundreds of dollars over CashApp and again threatening to kill himself, said the DOJ.
Janes allegedly also had a 12-year-old boy create and send him child pornography via Discord "through flattery and repeated begging."
The DOJ said that in addition to soliciting and acquiring child pornography from these and other minor victims, Janes allegedly purchased hundreds of videos and images of child sex abuse material over Telegram and attempted to meet up with a minor.
Charging documents indicate that after learning one victim was only 14, Janes tried to have him come over to his house.
Paul Fisher, a special agent with the FBI Washington field office's Child Exploitation and Human Trafficking Task Force, indicated in his affidavit supporting Janes' arrest — which took place on May 31 — that the investigation into the accused kicked off in February after a concerned father notified police in Galloway Township, New Jersey, that he had discovered his son had been communicating with an adult over Discord.
Washington-based FBI agents began pursuing the case after agents in Atlantic City, New Jersey, provided them with a lead on April 21, 2023.
The former FBI contractor appears to have made it relatively easy for investigators to track him down, having sent pictures of the badges he used to access federal buildings to his victims. His IP address, email address, and phone number also reportedly corresponded the offending Discord account.
A federal grand jury in the Eastern District of Virginia indicted him Wednesday on two counts of sexual exploitation of children and production of child pornography, one count of attempting coercion and enticement, and one count of receipt of child pornography.
If convicted, he will serve at least 15 years in prison and could face life in prison.
WUSA-TV noted that anyone who believes they or someone they know may have been victimized by Janes should contact the FBI at 202-278-2000.
Court documents indicated his username on Discord was "revision#3409."
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Former FBI contractor charged with child sex crimesyoutu.be
An inmate was sentenced to 24 more years in prison after admitting to ruthlessly killing a fellow prisoner – who was a convicted child predator.
Adam Taylor Wright pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in the 2019 death of Christian Maire at the Milan Correctional Facility in Milan, Michigan. On Wednesday, United States District Court Judge Paul D. Borman sentenced Wright to 24 years and four months for the brutal murder. Wright's sentence will run concurrently/consecutively to the sentences of imprisonment he is serving for other crimes.
On Jan. 2, 2019, Wright and his co-inmates Alex Albert Castro, 42, and Jason Dale Kechego, 41, killed fellow prisoner Maire, according to court documents.
"Specifically, Wright and Kechego repeatedly kicked and stomped Maire in the head, and Wright prevented corrections officers from intervening while Castro repeatedly stabbed Maire," according to the Department of Justice. "Wright, along with his two co-defendants, then worked together to throw Maire’s body down a flight of stairs. Maire died from multiple stab wounds (28 total) and blunt force trauma to the head."
The murder case was investigated by FBI agents.
Court cases for the two other co-defendants are pending.
U.S. Attorney Dawn Ison said in a statement, "Deterring violence inside prisons will always be a priority of this office. Senseless acts of violence that jeopardize the safety of employees and inmates of the Bureau of Prisons will be aggressively prosecuted."
Wright – nicknamed "Creeper" – was convicted of robbing banks in July 2018.
Maire – a married father of two from New York – was sentenced to prison for crimes committed when he was the reported leader of an international child porn ring. Maire and his cohorts allegedly targeted vulnerable teenage girls on the internet to perform sex acts online. For five years, the nine child sex abusers pretended to be teenage boys online to befriend young, lonely girls, according to prosecutors.
The child porn ring members manipulated teen girls into undressing, performing sex acts online, and even convinced some of the victims to cut themselves while the sexual predators watched on online video chat rooms. The child sexual abuse group reportedly shared the videos among the members. The child porn ring reportedly exploited more than 100 teenage girls in the United States and Canada, ages 10 to 17, before being busted by the FBI in 2017.
The Detroit Free Press reported in February, "At their sentencing hearings, the defendants came face to face with some of their still-traumatized victims, who persuaded a judge to lock the men up for decades for robbing their innocence and trust, and for destroying their childhoods."
One victim told the judge, "Thinking back to those days causes me to cry myself to sleep, wondering when the monsters will stop haunting me."
More than 100 people were recently arrested during "Operation March Sadness 2," a six-day undercover operation that led to the arrest of child predators and people seeking to engage prostitution, according to the Polk County Sheriff's Office in Florida.
According to a press release, a 27-year-old man named Xavier Jackson was arrested after communicating with an undercover detective who had been pretending to be a 14-year-old girl — he "sent [the detective] sexual images and graphic descriptions of what he wanted to do," according to the sheriff's office.
Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd noted during a news conference that the Jackson worked as a lifeguard at Disney's Polynesian Village Resort.
Operation March Sadness II news conference youtu.be
Shannon Johnson, a 41-year-old man who thought he was communicating with a 13-year-old girl, sent a naked picture of himself and went to a home with the plan to engage in sexual activity, according to the press release, which noted that Johnson was arrested.
Also among the 108 people arrested was Daniel Peters, a retired Cook County Illinois judge who was charged with soliciting a prostitute. "He requested an attorney," Judd said during the news conference. "Well judge, you need an attorney, you got problems."
"The arrests of a human trafficker and four child predators alone makes this whole operation worthwhile," Judd said, according to a statement included in the press release. "The on-line prostitution industry enables traffickers and victimizes those who are being trafficked. Our goal is to identify victims, offer them help, and find and arrest those who are profiting from the exploitation of human beings. Johns fuel the trafficking and victimization. Where there is prostitution, there is exploitation, disease, dysfunction, and broken families."
In just five days, an "elaborate multi-agency" undercover child sex predator operation in Florida led to the arrest of a dozen men. Authorities say the suspects were attempting to engage in sexual activities with children under the age of 14.
"Operation Wolves Blanket" was led by the Walton County Sheriff’s Office in collaboration with the Federal Bureau of Investigations, Department of Homeland Security, Florida Department of Law Enforcement, the state attorney’s office, Panama City Beach Police, Panama City Police Department, and deputies from Escambia, Santa Rosa, and Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Offices.
Between Jan. 26 and Jan. 30, law enforcement agents carried out an Internet Crimes Against Children operation targeting individuals pursuing children for sexual activity. Investigators posed as minors on the internet and engaged with adult men online who were allegedly interested in soliciting sexual acts from children under the age of 14.
The suspects, all men between the ages of 18 and 48, visited a location that authorities had set up to make arrests, according to the Walton County Sheriff's Office.
The undercover sting operation ended with the arrest of 12 men on charges of child solicitation.
All of the suspects were charged with second and third-degree felonies. The Walton County Sheriff's Office said, "Potential prison sentences range from five to 15 years behind bars per charge if found guilty and up to 25 years based on some sentencing guidelines."
Suspects were arrested in Walton County on Florida's panhandle in between Pensacola and Panama City. Two suspects were from out of state, one from Mississippi and the other from Alabama.
"Our goal was to identify child predators and get them out of our communities," Sheriff Michael Adkinson said. "There is no shortage of these individuals preying on our youth; we must all be vigilant."
Operation Wolves Blanket suspects who were arrested:
Police say a 20-year-old man lived under a teenage girl's bed for three weeks after meeting her on Instagram, and in that time he raped her and took nude photos of her.
The shocking incident unfolded in Cincinnati, Ohio.
Police allege that Jaret Wright of Barberton met the unidentified victim on Instagram and began living under her bed in February, unbeknownst to her parents. It was unclear if the two were in a relationship or if she invited him to live under her bed.
The girl was reported to be aged between 13 and 18 years old according to the Associated Press.
Police said that Wright raped the girl and took nude photos of her.
Eventually the teen's mother discovered Wright and called the police to arrest him. He was charged with three counts of sexual assault and a single count of producing child pornography.
Wright is being detained on a $50,000 bond.
Psychologist Dr. Ed Connor told WXIX-TV that predators are using social media in order to gain the confidence of their victims and take advantage of them.
"Perpetrators, especially when they're older than the victim, are quite good at grooming and convincing the victim that they're simply a friend and out for their best interests," Connor said.
He recommended that parents be proactive about monitoring what their children are doing on social media and on computers.
"Parents have to be intrusive," Connor continued. "They have to be more involved with what their child is doing on social media or the internet."
In another social media child abduction case in February, police rescued a 14-year-old from his 38-year-old abductor in Arkansas when they were spotted at a McDonald's. The man shot at police and tried to escape, but turned the gun on himself after crashing in the ensuing chase. Law enforcement officials said he had been contacting almost a dozen other children through the internet.
Man accused of sleeping under teen's bed, raping herwww.youtube.com
Donaldson’s brand and wealth have been built off of a squeaky-clean, family-friendly image and his ability to eschew politics and personal controversy. Over the past year, however, scandals have emerged.
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