Ex-Hillsborough principal takes plea deal, will get probation in sexting sting

It’s been about seven months since Derrick McLaughlin, once the beloved principal of Riverview’s Warren Hope Dawson Elementary School, was booked into Hillsborough County Jail with a suicide prevention jacket strapped around his chest.

The Lithia man, who now is 42 years old, was the most publicized name out of 18 who were arrested in January during “Operation Wanderlust” — a three-month-long undercover investigation that the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office announced would help its efforts to combat the “solicitation of minors online.”

McLaughlin, the Sheriff’s Office said, sent “sexually explicit texts” to a detective posing as a 15-year-old boy. After several days of chatting, McLaughlin was arrested for attempting to entice the fake 15-year-old into performing sex acts.

It was the first time McLaughlin, a father of two, had ever been accused of a crime — let alone arrested or placed under Florida’s Baker Act after making suicidal comments to investigators during his arrest. His charges, all third-degree felonies, carried the possibility of serious jail time if convicted. They were: transmission of harmful material to a minor, use of computer services or devices to solicit certain illegal acts and unlawful use of a two-way communications device.

Yet McLaughlin’s attorney, Ruffin Hunt, said his client’s case was resolved last month after he was offered a plea agreement from state prosecutors. For pleading “no contest” to the unlawful use of a two-way communications device, Hillsborough County Circuit Judge Mark Kiser sentenced him to 36 months of probation. Kiser and the state agreed not to prosecute McLaughlin on the remaining two charges, sparing him from being required to register as a sex offender with the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.

The leniency shown toward McLaughlin is far from the norm in such situations, and it was due to the unique circumstances of his case, McLaughlin’s attorney said.

Those arrested in sting operations such as “Operation Wanderlust” often face wildly different outcomes. About half of the 18 people arrested alongside McLaughlin faced charges of traveling to Hillsborough County to meet up with underaged victims for illegal sexual activities — one from as far away as Boca Raton. And most of those netted in the operation still are facing a range of charges, including attempted lewd or lascivious battery, possession of child pornography and traveling to meet a minor after using computer services or devices to solicit certain illegal acts, court records show.

“In Mr. McLaughlin’s case, he had absolutely no prior history of any criminal activity at all — a totally clean record — and none of the conversations he had with the undercover officer included any discussion about meeting up in person for any illicit activity,” Hunt said.

In fact, McLaughlin was using the adult dating app Scruff, which requires users to be at least 18 to join, when he came across the fake profile for 19-year-old “Jesse.” The undercover deputy used a photo of another employee at the Sheriff’s Office for the online persona and said in a search warrant he received “multiple messages from individuals at which time your affiant would advise them I was 15 and let them decide if they wanted to continue talking to me or not.”

According to a search warrant for the messages between McLaughlin and the detective, McLaughlin initiated a text conversation with the undercover officer on Jan. 19 and was told that same day that the “Jesse” he was chatting with was actually 15, not 19.

McLaughlin responded that it “probably wouldn’t be okay” for the two to keep chatting and cautioned “Jesse” to “please be careful out there ... There are some really bad people out there. Guys who will take advantage of you being 15.”

Later that day, McLaughlin inquired where “Jesse” went to school and then used his access to the Hillsborough County Public Schools database to question the undercover officer when he couldn’t find a 15-year-old “Jesse” enrolled at the high school he was told.

“I’m not a stalker,” McLaughlin told the false persona, “just a fact checker.”

The conversation then became flirtatious and sexual, and continued every day until, on Jan. 27, McLaughlin drove to the Riverview home where “Jesse” said he lived with his mother to bring them dinner, his attorney said.

“There was a whole back and forth with Mr. McLaughlin and the officer, who was portraying themselves as a teen raised by a single mom with drug or substance abuse problems, which obviously would affect Mr. McLaughlin and appeal to his desire to help young people,” Hunt said. “That day, he was told that the boy was home with his mom and they didn’t have anything for dinner, so of course, that affected Mr. McLaughlin and he offered to bring Panda Express to the house for both the boy and his mother.”

Once McLaughlin arrived at the house he was greeted by a team of Hillsborough sheriff’s deputies, his attorney said.

“It’s sickening that a trusted member of our community, a school principal, would take advantage of a child for his own self-gratification,” Sheriff Chad Chronister said in a statement about McLaughlin’s arrest. “Thankfully, it was not a child, but one of our detectives, who was on the receiving end of his obscene messages. No child should be subjected to the disturbing behavior put on display by McLaughlin.”

Now, more than six months later, Hunt said his client no longer has to face the prospect of years in prison and a lifetime as a sex offender. Still, he has lost his job with the Hillsborough County school district.

In a statement, Hillsborough County Public Schools said McLaughlin was hired on Dec. 16, 2002.

“We are shocked and deeply troubled by the charges filed against Derrick McLaughlin,” the statement said. “Our top priority is the safety and well-being of students and staff.”

Prosecutors did not respond to requests for comment.

Court records also show that McLaughlin’s divorce from his wife was finalized in March.

“It happens a lot in these situations, where lives get flipped upside down and names are drug through the mud before a court can even see what the discovery is in the case against the guilty party,” Hunt said. “In this case, Mr. McLaughlin became the face of the entire sting and, even though the court decided the charges against him didn’t warrant prosecution or sex offender status, the damage is already done.”

“Unfortunately for him, there’s no going back to the way things were before,” Hunt said.