Sexual Offender Resigns As Leader Of Booster Club
Published: Mar 8, 2002
TAMPA - A father convicted five years ago of sexually assaulting a child has resigned as a Wharton High School booster club president, jarring education leaders with a perplexing question. Should parent volunteers be subject to the same scrutiny as school district employees? ``It's a question for the [school] board,'' district spokesman Mark Hart said Thursday. ``Do we want to start routinely screening volunteers?'' William H. Carrico, 42, resigned Monday from Wharton's JROTC booster club, saying he did not want to jeopardize the school's new Junior Reserve Officers' Training Program, said the program's instructor, retired Marine Corps Maj. Michael Beale. Beale sought the resignation after school officials wrestled for weeks with how to handle the news that Carrico is a registered sex offender. Hillsborough County's school security keeps track of those offenders classified as sexual predators under state law, security chief Dave Friedberg said. If a predator lives within a mile and a half of a school, informational fliers are sent home with students. Only 74 of Hillsborough's 1,201 registered sexual offenders are predators, Friedberg said. The registry includes other parents of students, he said. Hillsborough has about 37,000 school volunteers, Hart said. It costs the district $15 apiece for a criminal background check by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, so only mentors who work one-on-one with students have been checked in the past, he said. ``They're out if we find any sex, drugs or crimes of violence,'' he said. The school board may want to consider checking other volunteers, said board member Candy Olson, but she's not sure where to draw the line. ``Do I want to get into screening every member of a booster club? No,'' she said. Carrico was extradited from Florida to Connecticut in 1996 on charges of raping a girl, then 13, over a five-year period. He pleaded guilty in 1997 to third-degree sexual assault and risk of injury to a minor, said prosecutor John Pannone in New London, Conn. Carrico received a five-year prison term, suspended after one year, and 10 years of probation. His probation required a sex offender evaluation and treatment if recommended, said Robert Coyne, chief probation officer with the Connecticut Judicial Department. When Carrico violated probation in 1999, he was sentenced to another 18 months, Pannone said. He moved back to Florida last summer, Friedberg said, ``with no court restrictions.'' Carrico was among only five or six parents of the 135 Wharton JROTC students who offered to form a booster club, Beale said. Carrico, who could not be reached for comment Thursday, was elected president when the group was formalized in December. About two weeks ago, Friedberg said, Wharton Principal Mitch Muley told him Carrico was on the sexual offender Web site, www.fdle.state.fl.us Hart said it was even earlier that the school's resource officer discovered it. Beale said that before a decision was made to seek the resignation, he made sure Carrico rode and roomed with another parent when some of the JROTC students traveled to Gainesville on an overnight field trip Feb. 23.
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`Worst' Child Porn Case Comes To End
Published: Mar 6, 2002
TAMPA - A Tampa man was sentenced Tuesday to 10 years in prison in what prosecutors say is the worst child pornography case in recent memory. Robert Perry, 31, maintains his innocence. He told U.S. District Judge Thomas Wiseman Jr. that he is a loving father of six who was unfairly prosecuted. But Wiseman was not swayed. He said he gave Perry a longer sentence because he believed Perry lied during the trial and encouraged his family to lie for him. Perry also got more time because of the violent, sadistic nature of the pornography, Wiseman said. ``This is probably the worst case of child pornography I've ever seen,'' said Assistant U.S. Attorney Colleen Murphy Davis. ``The picture of the 7-year-old girl sends chills up my spine every time I see it.'' Davis, a prosecutor for 15 years, often handles sexual crimes and child pornography cases. Authorities said they found photographs and videos of children two years ago when they seized Perry's computer from his home at 220 W. Mohawk Ave. One videotape contained a horrific image of a young girl in handcuffs with a bag over her head who was being sexually violated, Davis said. Authorities were led to Perry after America Online alerted them. Agents testified that Perry confessed to the crimes, saying he had gotten ``caught up'' in trading child pornography. During a prior trial, Perry testified that he never confessed and suggested his son or family friends might have had access to his computer. His first trial ended in a mistrial in March 2001 after the jury could not reach a verdict. A jury in August convicted him of possession of child pornography and two counts of receiving and distributing it.
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Sexual Predator Taken Into Custody
Published: Mar 5, 2002
TAMPA - A registered sexual predator has been charged with violating his probation after police say he approached a 10-year-old girl. Roosevelt Daniels, 63, was arrested Sunday at his home at 1608 Osborne Ave. On Friday, the girl told police that a man came up to her after she got off the school bus on North Bay Street and said, ``Come here, little girl.'' The girl ran home and realized she recognized the man from a sexual predator flier. After the child identified Roosevelt Daniels from the flier, a police officer called his probation officer who determined that Daniels had violated his probation. Daniels denied approaching the girl. He was being held without bail in the Orient Road Jail Monday. In 1986, Daniels was convicted of attempted sexual battery on a victim younger than 12 and two counts of lewd and lascivious acts on a child. He was sentenced to 30 years in prison. He was released in 1999 and is serving 15 years probation.
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Deputy Released, Faces Sex Charge
Published: Feb 25, 2002
TAMPA - A Hillsborough County sheriff's deputy arrested Friday on charges of committing lewd and lascivious acts on a 15-year-old boy was released from jail Sunday evening after posting $100,000 bail. Charles David Odell, 41, a nine-year veteran of the department, was charged with two counts and was arrested at 11 p.m. Friday at his home, Tampa police said. The charges stem from two incidents occurring since last month, police said. The teenage boy identified Odell by name and address, police said. The sheriff's office placed Odell on unpaid administrative leave and will begin an internal affairs investigation this week, deputies said.
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Deputy in Tampa accused of sex crime
The Hillsborough County officer began a relationship with the teen several months ago.
published February 24, 2002
TAMPA -- A Hillsborough County sheriff's deputy was arrested at his home Friday night after a weeklong investigation revealed a sexual relationship between the deputy and a teenage boy he had met in an online chat room, Tampa police said. Charles David Odell, a nine-year veteran of the force, became the focus of the investigation after the boy's parents called authorities about their son's online habits, said Tampa police Detective Julie Dickie. The parents contacted the Police Department because "they felt their son was involved in inappropriate activity," Dickie said. "They had no idea with whom." Odell, 41, apparently met the boy online and, over the course of a year, had personal contact with him on at least four occasions, Dickie said. She would not say where their meetings took place. Authorities confiscated two computers at Odell's home and are looking to see whether there are other victims, Dickie said. Odell was arrested at his home on Edna Court about 11 p.m. on charges of lewd and lascivious acts on a 15-year-old child and possession of marijuana. In addition to the criminal probe, the Sheriff's Office has launched an Internal Affairs investigation, said sheriff's Sgt. Alan Hill. Odell has been placed on administrative leave without pay, Hill said. Odell was a patrol deputy assigned to District 3, which encompasses the northwest part of the county, including the Carrollwood, Westchase and Citrus Park neighborhoods. Dickie urged parents to keep a close eye on their children because of the dangers lurking in cyberspace. "Watch your kids on the Internet," Dickie said. "I wish parents would just watch their kids."
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Talent Agent Faces Child Porn Charges Published: Feb 16, 2002 SEFFNER - A Seffner man arrested last month for operating a talent agency without a license was charged Friday with possession of child pornography. Pedophile William Glenn Whitaker, 48, is charged with 31 counts of possession of child pornography, said Debbie Carter, a Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office spokeswoman. The photos came from a computer confiscated at Whitaker's home, Carter said. Most of the photos were downloaded off the Internet and don't appear to have been taken locally, she said. According to officials, Whitaker ran Wizard Productions modeling agency although he didn't have a license. Authorities accused Whitaker of using the agency to take pictures of girls in short skirts and lingerie.

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