Day care worker’s plan to pay $150 to sexually assault teen foiled in Florida, cops say

An elementary school after-school day care worker is among six men charged with child sex crimes after Florida deputies posed as underage girls online in a sting operation, officials say.

From Sept. 19 to Sept. 25, investigators with the Polk County Sheriff’s Office posed as underage teens or the guardians of teens on various social media platforms, gaming websites, online dating sites and chat rooms to target child predators, according to an Oct. 10 news release and news conference.

Investigators spoke with predators and arranged times to meet with them, and ultimately six men showed up to the meetings, the sheriff’s office said.

Douglas Cooley, 26, is a contracted employee with the Clay Springs Elementary School after-school day care in Apopka, Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd said in the news conference.

Cooley believed he was talking to a “bad stepmom” and told undercover investigators he was willing to pay $100 to sexually assault her 15-year-old daughter and an additional $50 to assault her without protection, Judd said during the conference.

Judd said Cooley told the “bad stepmom” he was interested in her daughter but asked the stepmother if she was the teen’s “pimp” and if she had any other girls.

Cooley drove to an agreed-upon location to meet the teen, Judd said, and arrived wearing a D.A.R.E T-shirt, representing a program intended on teaching childhood safety and drug abuse prevention.

Instead, Cooley was met by the child predator investigation team, and he wasn’t the only one, deputies said.

A 40-year-old worker at a scaffolding company told his employers he was going to be late for work after he is accused of chatting online with what he thought was a 13-year-old girl, according to the release.

The man told the “teen” he wanted to “teach her how to have sex” and then purchased condoms on the way to their meet-up, Judd said.

The 40-year-old is a father of four girls, ranging in age from 9 to 16 years old, the sheriff’s office said, and Judd said his children were being screened for potential sexual abuse. McClatchy News is not identifying the man to protect the identity of his children.

Trevor Walker, 33, works at a Publix distribution center in Orlando, according to the sheriff’s office, and talked with an undercover investigator posing as the stepmother of a 15-year-old girl.

Walker wanted to pay the “bad stepmom” for three hours of unprotected sexual assault of the teen, Judd said, and offered $400.

Walker told the undercover investigator he didn’t want to be “caught up in any of this Grady Judd sting business” or “see Chris Hansen,” Judd said, but came to the meetup anyway.

Hansen is a TV personality known for investigative shows like “To Catch a Predator” and “Dateline.”

“He got to see both. The Grady Judd sting, and Chris Hansen was there,” Judd said.

Douglas Da Silva, 46, owns a house-cleaning business with his wife and drives for Uber Eats, according to the release, and was not in the country legally, Judd said.

The Brazil native used a social networking site to talk with an undercover investigator posing as the stepmother of a 15-year-old girl, according to the release.

He offered the “bad stepmom” $250 to sexually assault the teen multiple times in one hour, the release said.

Timothy Wellman, 36, was a mechanic in the Army and is now a veteran going back to school to become a mechanic for Harley-Davidson motorcycles, Judd said.

Wellman recently moved to Florida from Ohio and believed he was talking to a 14-year-old girl online, according to the release.

Judd said Wellman told investigators “if this were 200 years ago, our age difference wouldn’t make any difference at all.”

Lastly, Feras Klisli, 49, an Uber driver on public assistance believed he was chatting with a 14-year-old girl online, Judd said.

Klisli asked the “teen” if she was a virgin before driving to their meetup, according to the release.

There are 22 felony charges against the six men including traveling to meet a minor for sex, attempted lewd battery, use of a two-way communication device to commit a felony, human trafficking and use of a computer to solicit the guardian of a child for sex.

Two of the men, the 40-year-old and Klisli, were released after posting bond, according to the release. The rest remain in custody as of Oct. 10.

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