Multiple arrests in Florida craigslist child sex sting

Published on June 11, 2012 by Trench Reynolds in Craigslist and Predators. 17 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , , .

Matthew Chillcott

I’m going to forgo the headline this time because it ruins the surprise.

So say you’re local police department decided to carry out a sting on craigslist to catch would be child predators. Say they placed an ad on craigslist posing as a stepmother willing to turn out her 14-year-old stepdaughter for sex on craigslist. How many people do you think they would arrest? 1? 3? 10?

In Polk County, Florida sheriff’s arrested 38 people in a 10 day sting dubbed Operation Cyber Child. If you’re new to the site Sheriff Grady Judd of Polk County is my favorite sheriff in the country. He has continued to carry out not only child predator stings through craigslist but also many sex trafficking stings as well using craigslist and backpage.

Of course among the 38 arrestees we have the obligatory grade school teacher. During the sting sheriffs arrested 43-year-old Matthew Chillcott, a 5th grade teacher from Orlando. Hitting the stereotype daily double they also arrested a registered sex offender in 31-year-old Wilson Silva of Brooksville, Florida. Silva has been on the registry since 2001. I wonder if it took him this long to reoffend or was it just the first time he’s been caught.

Now think about this. If they arrest this many people who think they;re being offered a child on craigslist how much do you think it’s happening without it being the police? It’s disturbing to think about it.

While the national media has moved on from craigslist since they closed the erotic services section I haven’t. I still see craigslist for the unmoderated cesspool of pedophiles that it is. Will it have to take a child version of Julissa Brisman before craigslist is held responsible once again? I hope to hell not.

UPDATE 6/16/2012: Add NASA engineer Phil Luna of San Jose, California to the list of those arrested in the Florida sting.

Phil Luna

Luna was said to have gotten on a plane to come to Florida in order to meet what he thought was going to be a mother and her 11-year-old daughter.

Apparently being a ‘rocket scientist’ doesn’t make you a smarter pedophile.

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  • http://twitter.com/HuwOS HuwOS

    I have to say, I find it utterly bizarre how you post an example of how to use things like craigslist to improve the safety of children to then rant on abouthow craigslist is a cesspool for allowing personal ads even after they stop allowing personal ads.
    The only thing wrong with them was they backed down in the face of  self serving knuckleheads and dropped the section which as your post points out was capable of being used and was being used to catch child predators.

    Child abuse is a serious subject and a serious matter and it shouldn’t take an awful lot of thought to realise that the biggest problems we’ve ever had with it were caused by societies willingness to ignore it and hide it an wish it away. Since we stopped ignoring it, things have begun to improve.
    I find it impossible to understand why people who like to claim to have childrens’ interests at heart would want to do anything that would push signs and traces of potential abusive situations out of sight and out of reach of the law.

    • http://trench.co Trench Reynolds

      Please tell me where I ever said that craigslist can be used to improve the safety of children. 

      Craigslist and children shouldn’t ever be used in the same sentence. 

  • http://twitter.com/HuwOS HuwOS

    “Please tell me where I ever said that craigslist can be used to improve the safety of children. ”
    You did not say it could be used to do so, but you should have; as your story specifically includes and highlights the information that craigslist and others were used to do just that.
    “Sheriff Grady Judd of Polk County ”
    and his “not only child predator stings through craigslist but also many sex trafficking stings as well using craigslist and backpage”
    But of course, he could only do that, if  those kinds of ads are offered in a visible location. Once the nice public monitorable places go, especially from those sites who would actually be willing to work with law enforcement agencies, like craigslist would and did do, then the effect on vulnerable and abused children and others is not just neutral it becomes the opposite of helpful, and that really is harmful.

    • http://sirkissa.wordpress.com/ Sirkissa

      In Trench’s words: “Now think about this. If they arrest this many people who think they’re being offered a child on craigslist how much do you think it’s happening without it being the police? It’s disturbing to think about it.”
      The police have to do these stings to catch these mutants, but craigslist is not willing to work with authorities. The almighty dollar is what matters to them. Read more posts on this blog about craigslist.

      • http://twitter.com/HuwOS HuwOS

        ‘In Trench’s words: “Now think about this. If they arrest this many people who think they’re being offered a child on craigslist how much do you think it’s happening without it being the police? It’s disturbing to think about it.”‘

        Unless we are to believe that abuse is novel (it isn’t, it has always been around, we just pretended it didn’t exist for far too long) then if it isn’t happening somewhere visible like craigslist then all that is being achieved is that it is happening somewhere we don’t know about.

        “The police have to do these stings to catch these mutants, but craigslist is not willing to work with authorities. The almighty dollar is what matters to them.”

        Craigslist went to some lengths to work with authorities, saying it is otherwise is simply false.

        http://www.inquisitr.com/7604/craigslist-working-with-law-enforcement-authorities-to-prevent-illegal-activities/

        http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120405/02403418381/nytimes-columnist-stirs-up-controversy-that-will-only-drive-human-trafficking-further-underground.shtml

        • http://trench.co Trench Reynolds

          How about some other words by me?

          I’ve had commenters try to tell me that craigslist is a boon for police trying to catch child predators and that moderating the site would drive them underground. That’s the point slapnuts. The farther they are driven underground the less often these crimes happen. Since craigslist has refused to do anything about this they’re nothing more than a public avenue used by pedophiles to network with each other. Take that avenue away from them and there will be less victims.

          And craigslist only works with authorities when they have to.

  • http://twitter.com/HuwOS HuwOS

    “I’ve had commenters try to tell me that craigslist is a boon for police trying to catch child predators and that moderating the site would drive them underground”

    All falling on deaf and unwilling ears apparently.

    “That’s the point slapnuts”.

    Less about protecting children than aggrandising yourself whilst acting childish.

    “The farther they are driven underground the less often these crimes happen”

    Oh for heaven’s sake, if them being hidden and secret prevented these crimes from happening, we would not have spent the last twenty years uncovering the misery and abuse that children suffered for the previous Fifty. It takes particular idiocy to make the claim you make.
    I note you make it without evidence.

    “Since craigslist has refused to do anything about this ”
    They didn’t as even you admit when you say
    “craigslist only works with authorities when they have to”

    So from this, you can be assured, that we are definitively aware that your carrying on is about your own ego mixed with pigheaded ignorance and a determination to ignore reality and absolutely nothing to do with actually aiding in the prevention of child abuse and the sexual abuse of other vulnerable groups.

    You will no doubt carry on, wrapping yourself in the mantle of righteousness while the causes you fight for do more harm to children than those you condemn.
    Just so long as you are happy eh?

    • http://trench.co Trench Reynolds

      So you’d prefer to see children openly traded on the internet just so it’s not ‘driven underground’? 

      For everyone of these scumbags that they catch there are probably at least 10 more that they haven’t. 

  • http://sirkissa.wordpress.com/ Sirkissa

    Trench has cared and done more for children than many people I know. Feel good attacking a caring man? STFU. You sound like the pedophiles I report. FYI: nothing you say will change my opinion.

  • Matahari847

    These operations are nothing less than entrapment in many cases these officers are posing as female adults luring these men with promises of sex with the ADULT. Contact Jane Velez Mitchell and tell her to do a segment on the other side of this story. 1877 586 7297, or email vcm@cnn.co​m. Do no just listen to these cops side their is another side to these stories in many cases!!

    • http://trench.co Trench Reynolds

      Yes let’s focus on the poor innocent men who were just looking to pay for rape victims instead of the women and children who are being trafficked for sex. 

      Good luck with that. Let me know how it works out for you. 

  • Entrapment

    here is a question: Why would a “child Predator” use the adult section of Craigslist (Casual Encounters) to pick up children?

    Here is a quote I heard today that put this into perspective: its Just like a hungry vegan that goes to a steakhouse for dinner.

    Read more here: http://www.bradenton.com/2012/09/20/4207285/suspects-arrested-in-sex-sting.html#storylink=cpy#storylink=cpy
    It clearly states you must be 18 years of age to enter the site. Do they think a child predator is thinking “Hey, Lets go to an Adult Website and maybe there is a slim chance that a child will stop in and say hello”

    Its makes no sense. This is why paeople are calling these stings entrapment. Predators are going to go to soft targets such as facebook, twitter etc to pick up kids.

    The only people you are catching in the already sexually charged adult craigslist site are men that have no background or predisposition to commit this crime.

    To catch the right people police either need to move the stings to more appropriate online venues or just stop creating crime in the first place.

    • http://trench.co Trench Reynolds

      Being an obvious pedo defender you’ve obviously turned a blind eye to all the stories I’ve posted where pedo scum have posted ads looking for children. Or how about the guy who called a handyman that was posting an ad on craigslist and out of the blue offered him money to have sex with his kids.

      And that’s a load of crap about these guys having no predisposition for molesting kids. Most times when these scumbags are caught it’s not their first rodeo.

      So go peddle your pedo crap somewhere else.

    • Your_Pal_Nancy

      Predators are going to adult websites to talk to other adults who are selling children. Yes, predators troll FB etc for kids to groom and meet, but some would rather just pay some sick bitch on craiglist for her daughter because it’s less work. Nobody has sex with a child out of nowhere. Nobody says “well I WAS going to have sex with an adult, but since the first ad I saw was for a 14 year old, YOLO!” Oh and that vegan in a steakhouse analogy you’re so excited about sucks balls.

      • http://trench.co Trench Reynolds


        “well I WAS going to have sex with an adult, but since the first ad I saw was for a 14 year old, YOLO!”

        Sorry but that made me laugh.

        • Your_Pal_Nancy

          Lol well, honestly! That’s the biggest bunch of crap I’ve read in a while.

          • http://trench.co Trench Reynolds

            It’s standard pedo defender bullcrap. It’s all a game of misdirection for them. They’re trying to get you to look in another direction except for the one where they’re raping children.