The Florida Attorney General CyberCrime Unit

Can you believe this guy?: Ohio Man Arrested, Charged with Attempting to Purchase Two Children for Sexual Torture~ Man asked undercover investigator if he could drown her daughters for sexual gratification ~TALLAHASSEE, FL – An Ohio man was arrested on felony charges that he approached an undercover investigator online and offered to pay to act out his sexual perversions with children, Attorney General Bill McCollum today announced. Jeff Doland was arrested by authorities with the Attorney General’s Child Predator CyberCrime Unit after he flew to Miami, believing he was going to meet a mother of two girls, ages nine and 12 years old, and would pay the woman $550 to forcibly submerge the children under water until they became unconscious. During multiple internet conversations, Doland told the woman, an undercover agent with the United States Secret Service, that “dunking” was his particular form of sexual gratification.“The allegations made during the course of this investigation are so heinous they are almost outside the realm of comprehension. Without law enforcement intervention, real children could have been in grave danger,” said Attorney General McCollum.The undercover investigation began in April when the Secret Service agent was working undercover in an internet chat room, posing as the mother of two young daughters. Doland, of Uniontown, Ohio, approached the “woman” online and told her that he would pay her to allow him to dunk the girls, describing dunking as forcibly submerging someone under water until he or she is generally unconscious, then raising the person out of the water. He claimed he “liked watching the bubbles” and went on to send the undercover agent explicit images of child torture as examples of what he proposed to do to the two young children.The Secret Service agent alerted authorities with the Attorney General’s CyberCrime Unit, who assisted with the continued investigation until Doland announced his intention to meet the “mother” in Miami. Doland was arrested when his plane arrived in Miami after again describing to another undercover investigator exactly what he wanted to do to the children, including a detailed explanation of how he planned to bind the young girls to the bottom of the pool of water. The arrest was made with the assistance of the Miami-Dade Police Department.Doland will initially be charged with selling or buying of minors, a first-degree felony, and promoting the sexual performance of a child, a second-degree felony. The first charge is described in Florida statute as offering to purchase a minor with the intent to promote acts requiring the rendering of assistance by the minor to any other person to engage in sexually explicit conduct for the purpose of producing a visual depiction of the conduct. The additional charge is described as producing, directing, manufacturing or promoting the sadomasochistic abuse or harm of a child through torture and/or physical restraint for the purpose of sexual gratification. Doland faces up to 45 years in prison for the charges against him. The case will be prosecuted by the State Attorney’s Office for the 11th Judicial Circuit.More News:St. Johns County Man Pleads Guilty to Federal Charge of Possession of Child PornographyTALLAHASSEE, FL - Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum, Acting U.S. Attorney James R. Klindt, and Michael J. Folmar, Special Agent in Charge of the Jacksonville Division of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, today announced that a St. Johns County man pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in Jacksonville to possession of matters containing visual depictions of child pornography. Darrell Mark Krause, 42, was arrested at his residence in north St. Johns County in May 2007. Court documents charged that on March 7, 2007, Krause knowingly possessed matters which contained visual depictions that had been shipped and transported in interstate and foreign commerce, the production of which visual depictions involved the use of minors engaging in sexually explicit conduct.According to the plea agreement filed today, a computer seized from Krause's residence on March 7, 2007 contained in excess of 15,000 images and 400 videos depicting child pornography. In addition, the plea agreement requires the forfeiture of Krause's residence as well as his computer and three other hard disk drives. Krause faces a maximum penalty of up to 10 years’ imprisonment, a $250,000 fine and a term of supervised release of not less than five years and up to life. A sentencing date has not yet been set.The case was investigated by the Child Predator CyberCrime Unit of the Florida Attorney General’s Office, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the St. Johns County Sheriff's Office. Assistant United States Attorney D. Rodney Brown is handling the prosecution of this case."The CyberCrime Unit will continue to bring these cases for Federal prosecution because we believe nothing is more serious than the sexual exploitation of our youngest citizens," said Attorney General McCollum. "I appreciate the determined efforts made by the U.S. Attorney's Office to keep these individuals away from our children."This case is part of Project Safe Childhood. In February 2006, Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales created Project Safe Childhood, a national initiative designed to protect children from online exploitation and abuse. Led by the United States Attorney's Offices, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state and local resources to better locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the internet, as well as identify and rescue victims. For more information on Project Safe Childhood, please visit http://www.projectsafechildhood.gov.The Florida Attorney General's Child Predator CyberCrime Unit is a member of the North Florida Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force, a federally funded program working nationwide to educate and support law enforcement to stop these crimes, and the FBI Cyber Task Force in Jacksonville. The unit has made 48 arrests since October 2005 and has referred several cases to be prosecuted by Federal authorities. More information on the Florida Attorney General's CyberCrime initiative is available at http://www.myfloridalegal.com.