News Release - Orlando Man Sentenced to Prison for Traveling to Meet Child for Sex

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Attorney General Bill McCollum News Release

May 16, 2008

Media Contact: Sandi Copes
Phone: (850) 245-0150

Orlando Man Sentenced to Prison for Traveling to Meet Child for Sex

~ Man was arrested last July during undercover internet operation in Polk County ~

TALLAHASSEE, FL - Attorney General Bill McCollum today announced that an Orange County man was sentenced to more than two years in prison for traveling to meet someone he thought was a child, intending to have sex with her. Manish Patel was arrested during a July undercover internet operation in Polk County and pleaded guilty to using a computer to seduce a child and attempting to use a computer for child exploitation. After serving a 25-month prison sentence, Patel must also serve eight years of sex offender probation and register with the state as a sex offender. He was prosecuted by the Attorney General’s Office of Statewide Prosecution.

The undercover operation, led by Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd and his office, netted the arrests of 25 individuals who, over the course of only four days, traveled to Polk County believing they were meeting a child for sex. Undercover detectives used chat rooms and instant messaging to direct suspects to the location. Patel, 23, began talking with someone he thought was a 14-year old girl and after extremely explicit conversations, traveled that same day from Orlando to Polk County intending to have sex with the child.

The two-week-long operation, dubbed “Operation Guardian,” included detectives, officers and special agents from the Polk County Sheriff’s Office, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE), Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the Plant City Police Department, all working in conjunction with members of the State Attorney’s Office and the Office of Statewide Prosecution.