POLK COUNTY, Fla.,None — A massive child pornography bust in Polk County led to 29 arrests. Thursday morning, 28 people were arrested and the 29th suspect, Tim Lakin, turned himself in Thursday afternoon. The group is facing charges for possession and distribution of child pornography.
MUG SHOTS: See All 29 Suspects SUSPECTS SPEAK (explicit): Raw Comments From Suspects ARRESTS MADE (explicit): Raw Video | Images SUSPECT LIST: Names, Charges For All 29
The 29 arrests Thursday come after 21 others were arrested from July 2009 through March 2010. During those arrests, five of the suspects were additionally charged with sex crimes against children.
WFTV was there when several suspects were escorted to law enforcement vehicles Thursday and, while some denied the accusations, other apologized for their actions.
"Are you addicted to child porn?" WFTV reporter Melonie Holt asked one suspect.
"What I did was very wrong," he replied.
"I got caught with something I wasn't supposed to have," another suspect told Holt.
Child Porn Mugs ALL 042210 MUG SHOTS: See All 29 Suspects Some of the accused were vocal about their arrest.
"Sean, do you have anything to say for yourself? reporter Melonie Holt asked.
"Yeah, f*** the Polk County Sheriff's Department!" the suspect replied.
WFTV found out some of the children they were looking at live in Central Florida. At least two of the people arrested in the massive child porn sweep were actually generating the images using local children.
Investigators told WFTV they have identified at least a half-dozen local victims. Thursday, Sheriff Grady Judd said computer crimes detectives made it a priority to try to identify the young victims in the images.
Detectives were also watching to see if any of the suspects had access to young children and, as a result, the sheriff said eight children were rescued from a life of abuse.
Raw Child Porn Perp Walk 10 Raw Child Porn Perp Walk 10 SUSPECTS SPEAK (explicit): Raw Comments ARRESTS MADE (explicit): Video | Images One by one, more than 20 child porn suspects were escorted to jail from the Polk County Sheriff's Office Thursday morning on multiple charges of possession of child pornography and, in some cases, promotion of child porn.
"It was just one of those things to look at. It wasn't like something I was into," a suspect told Holt.
"Can you tell us why you were downloading those images?" Holt asked.
"What I did was very wrong and I'm truly sorry for what I did. The stuff that I saw on there I wouldn't wish on my worst enemy," the suspect replied.
Sheriff Grady Judd called the images uncovered by detectives unspeakable. Some of the images of sexual abuse involved infants. A few of the suspects rounded up in Operation Child Shield II are accused of sexually abusing children.
"I said let's challenge ourselves to see how many victims we can find,and they did," Sheriff Grady said.
During the first round up from July 2009 through March 2010, four of the men and one woman had been sexually abusing children, in addition to creating and downloading child pornography. The five suspects facing abuse charges are Daryl McClelland, Richard Nobles, Ricky Bailey, Jodi Vinson and Angel Pizarro.
A 6-year-old and 10-year-old, deputies said, were sexually abused by the Lakeland woman, Jodi Vinson, who is the only female suspect in the round up. Detectives said she allowed the children to be abused by another suspect that she met on MySpace.
There have been 50 arrests since July and the sheriff had a warning.
"One, we'll find you. Two, we'll arrest you. And three, we'll put you in prison," Grady said.
The sheriff also called on the public to report any inappropriate behavior, because each image represents a child being abused.
The State Attorneys prosecuted 68 cases involving charges like these last year. WFTV was told that most of the cases don't go to trial; they end in plea deals.
The suspects' ages range from 16 to 56 years old. WFTV learned that one suspect is a UCF student, another is an Isleworth security guard and one is an employee from the Lakeland Ledger.
Judd's agency has arrested 141 people suspected of downloading child pornography in various sweeps during the past three years.