A Florida sheriff said that his department “always” caught Disney employees during undercover operations, while revealing the results of a week-long investigation into human trafficking.
The large investigation, known as “Fall Haul 2,” was spearheaded by the Polk County Police Department and involved a week-long sting operation in central Florida that netted over 150 arrests.
“Our goal is to identify victims, offer them help, and arrest those who are fueling the exploitation of human beings (Johns) and those profiting from the exploitation of human beings. Prostitution is not a victimless crime – it results in exploitation, disease, dysfunction, drug and alcohol addiction, violence, and broken families,” Sheriff Grady Judd said in a statement.
People from Florida, Georgia, Michigan, New York, California, North Carolina, Kentucky, Mississippi, and Arizona were all arrested during the undercover operation. Notable arrests included a Disney bellhop, a Georgia police deputy chief, and a high school physical education teacher.
The Disney employee, 57-year-old Guillermo Perez, was arrested for soliciting a prostitute. Perez is a bellhop for Disney’s Coronado Springs Resort. While showing Perez’s photo while at the press conference, Judd suggested he was not surprised to have arrested a Disney employee.
“Now, where would we be with an undercover operation and no Disney employees?” he said. “Oh yes, we always have Disney employees.”
Also arrested was an independent photographer who the sheriff’s department said is occasionally “contracted by Disney.”
Jason DiPrima, the former deputy chief of administration for the Cartersville Police Department in Georgia, was arrested as well for soliciting a prostitute. DiPrima, who has since resigned from his position, allegedly gave an undercover detective $180 and a pack of White Claw, according to the sheriff.
“He did a mean, nasty thing to his family,” Judd said.
A correctional officer at Lake County Correctional Facility was also detained and will now be “in the jail as a jailbird like those jailbirds he watches,” the sheriff said.
Several school employees were also arrested during the sting. Twenty-six-year-old P.E. teacher John Layton was arrested for soliciting a prostitute and received a terse response from the sheriff when he said that he had track practice in the morning.
“No, the students have track practice in the morning; you have jail practice in the morning,” Judd stated.
One former teacher, 41-year-old Cameron Burke, who was out on bond, was also caught up in the investigation. Burke had been facing charges related to accusations that he had been having sex with a 15-year-old student. Judd said that Burke was emotional, but got little sympathy from the sheriff.
“Dude, why didn’t you think of that ahead of time?” he said. “Of course, you only have three brain cells.”
Drugs were also seized during the seven-day investigation.
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