September 17, 2008
BY KAUSTUV BASU - FLORIDA TODAY
A 35-year-old Titusville man remains in custody of the Brevard County Sheriff's Office this morning following his arrest by a SWAT team.
SWAT team members served a search warrant at a residence in the 4100 block of Barna Road in Titusville and seized a computer and other digital storage devices, according to the sheriff’s office.
Derek Thibodeau now faces a slew of charges including 16 counts of online lewd solicitation of a child, two counts of lewd and lascivious exhibition, four counts of transmission of harmful material and failure of a sex offender to register e-mail address or an instant messenger screen name.
The sheriff’s office said Thibodeau was under investigation for nine months after he contacted an agent at the Pennsylvania Attorney General’s Office through an instant messaging service on the computer, believing that he was chatting with a 13-year-old.
Thibodeau solicited the girl to engage in sexual activity at least 16 times while also sending lewd pictures of himself, the sheriff’s office said. At times, he also used a web camera to transmit lewd images of himself, officials said.
The Titusville resident has been a registered sexual offender since Oct. 3, 2000, when he was convicted for using a computer service to solicit/lure a child. He had been arrested in 1994 for exhibition of sexual organs and prostitution, the sheriff’s office said. He is expected to be transferred to the Brevard County Jail, where he will be held on a $795,000 bond.
http://www.floridatoday.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080917/BREAKINGNEWS/309170006
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment