FL- 2008 ‘Dateline’ predator sting a huge success in Fort Myers

12-28-2008 Florida:

Most of the 24 men caught on TV show serve jail time

It’s been almost three years since producers of “Dateline” NBC’s “To Catch a Predator” came to Fort Myers to set up an Internet sex sting with Fort Myers police and perverted-justice.com.

In all, 20 of the 24 men arrested were featured on national television as driving to a house off McGregor Boulevard to meet for sex with a minor in April 2006. According to police, the men were chatting online with adult decoys who were posing as minors.

The fallout continued to filter through the court system in 2008. The majority — 17 — have pleaded guilty or no contest to some charges stemming from the sting. Three men went to trial and were found guilty, while one was found not guilty. Cases for the three others remain in the court system with 2009 trial dates. Almost all of those who were convicted — 95 percent so far — were placed on probation and almost all spent time in jail. The longest sentence handed out was five years in prison. Fort Myers was the site of one of 11 stings “Dateline” aired from 2004 to 2007.

Fort Myers Police Chief Doug Baker said he has talked with perverted-justice.com, a group that assists law enforcement with finding online sexual predators, about conducting another sting, but he wants to wait until all the cases from this operation have gone through the court system. The operation was worth it, he said.

“I think there’s two impacts here,” he said. “The coverage we received from it and alerting parents of the dangers, and if you’re going to come to Fort Myers, you stand the risk of being arrested.”

He said he hopes the series of television shows, which depicted men in different cities traveling to meet someone they thought was a teenager they had chatted with online, brought awareness to parents with teenagers who use the Internet. He said some parents might be so busy they have a tough time keeping up with what their children are doing online.

Fort Myers defense attorney Joseph Viacava, who represented defendant Calvin Greer, said the national exposure brought to the issue of online predators was a benefit of the “Dateline” shows.

“I think it had a tremendous impact,” he said. “I guarantee people saw that and don’t engage in that anymore.”

But, he said, the evidence against the 24 men brought up some legal questions. One question is whether charges in which a child is a victim should have been levied against the men even though they were chatting with adult decoys posing as children.

“It’s not unconstitutional to have a fantasy,” he said. “It’s criminal to have sexually explicit conversations with a child. I think the state has problems proving it’s a conversation with a kid.”

Assistant Public Defender J. William Miskovich, who represented several of the clients, said that in many of the cases, some charges were thrown out by judges for lack of jurisdiction because the defendants were chatting online with a decoy not in Lee County. That created jurisdictional problems.

“That’s one of the main things,” Miskovich said. “Somehow, you have to tie it to Lee County.”

Miskovich represented Thomas Moffitt, who, after setting up the meeting, got to the house and never went inside. Moffitt is the only Fort Myers defendant who was found not guilty at trial and Miskovich said he has gotten calls from other attorneys across the country who say he is the only defendant nationwide who was found not guilty.

Assistant state attorney Francine Donnorummo said the jurisdiction issues were a problem only because it was the state attorney’s office in Lee County prosecuting.

Florida’s statewide prosecutor’s office or U.S. Attorney’s Office could have taken the cases and not had those problems.

“In the end, it didn’t prove to be (a problem),” Donnorummo said. “I think it was largely successful.”

She said the defendants who pleaded guilty or went to trial and lost were sentenced appropriately. Along with some of the charges that required jail time, all who were convicted will serve a term of sexual offender probation and will be a registered sex offender for life.

Like Baker, Donnorummo said she thinks the sting brought awareness. Donnorummo said it might have curbed the efforts of some potential predators.

“You might get caught,” she said. “You might be talking with an undercover agent.” ..News Source.. by PAT GILLESPIE