Over 100 arrested in undercover prostitution bust in Polk County
POLK COUNTY (FOX 13) - Basketball fans are excited over March Madness right now. But Polk Sheriff Grady Judd is enthralled with something else: March Sadness. That's the name of his latest crackdown.
During a recent six day period, 104 sex workers and Johns were arrested.
"What you see here is not a star basketball team," Judd said on Tuesday. " They are a lot of losers."
Judd says perhaps the biggest slam dunk was Dirk Watson, a Captain in the U.S. Air Force. Watson is stationed at Cape Canaveral and has top secret security clearance.
"He had horrible graphic communication on line with an undercover detective who clearly indicated she was only 14 years of age," said Judd.
Detectives say Watson's wife, two kids and parents were vacationing at Disney when he traveled to Polk County to hook up.
Instead, he landed in jail.
"Well, I'll tell you what. We launched him right into the county jail, and we didn't need a rocket to do it," said Judd.
Investigators also arrested a man who had been nabbed in the same neighborhood trying to pick up a prostitute less than a year ago, and a woman who left her 7-year-old son in the car so she could have sex with a John.